Surface Ripples

Dump the 'Dumb Rules'

I recently came across a wake-up call for all leaders from Michele Romanow, Serial Entrepreneur.  It went like this:

So every couple of months at [company], we'd have this thing called "an assault on dumb rules". 

It's simple: if you brought forward a dumb rule, you were rewarded. 

As organisations scale, politics & processes get in the way of efficiency. 

It's mind-blowing how many informal rules had been established that slowed things down. 

We actually managed to take things from EIGHT steps to ONE.

If you as a leader are not thinking critically of your organisation's rules, your team will start protecting things that are built instead of what the customer and organization truly needs.

Look at that penultimate sentence where they reduced one process form eight steps to one…. How much time did that free up, I wonder?  What were the impacts on customer service?  On costs?

Technology, new legislation, improved processes, better education and training all offer the opportunity to take a long hard look at ‘the rules’ and to ask ourselves whether certain processes really still have a place.  If they revolve around safety in the workplace, they get looked at more seriously.  If, however, they simply add ‘paperwork’ or process steps which distract us from more productive activities, we need to review them.

Every time we introduce a new process or rule, we need to ask, ‘How will this impact customers, service, costs or safety at work?  If the impact is likely to be less time to deal with customer needs, slower service, increased costs and at best only a marginal increase in safety (or a combination of all the above), then we need to think twice about whether the benefits outweigh the impacts.  

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

Labels: Customer Care, Financial, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork

posted by William Martin @ 13:36