How can you make life simple?
Now you understand the work how could you make it easier? How could you change your systems and processes so that the work becomes more:
1. Error Proof?
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2. Omission Proof?
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3. Tamper Proof?
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5. Forgiving?
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6. Simple?
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8. Adaptable?
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9. Versatile
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10. Durable?
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It isn’t simple
Making the work easy takes a little thinking about, but then, any fool can make things complicated.
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And if we make the work easy then the customer experience is more likely to be easy too.
Exactly
Hello James,
Making the work easy requires an in depth understanding of the work. That means that the folks that do the work are best placed to act on the work to make it simple. Further making the work simple is an iterative and dynamic process. it is an ongoing process – I think the Japanese call it Kaizen, continuous improvement.
So what does this mean in terms of organisational practice? A fundamental change in the western way of organisational design and management. Put differently, the responsibility for designing and continuously improving the work must lie with those actually doing the work. And the making of ongoing changes is accepted and taken for granted. If there are managers then they play a facilitative, enabling role.
In the western way of doing things the Managers have zero incentive to make the work simple. Further, their lack of deep understanding of the work is such that they too often meddle in that which they do not understand and make the work even harder for those that do the work. I have experienced this myself and hear about it on a daily basis.
Maz
Yes Maz, it is very hard for our managers to accept that they don’t know all the answers and realise that their job is to help their staff, not tell them what to do.