I asked specifically to teach about making operational improvements, for micro, small and medium businesses.
While working on this, I realised that very often, small business owners are the kind of people who have exceptional knowledge in their field. They would be subject matter experts. So how do you teach a subject matter expert how to improve their operation, which most likely forms the basis of their business?
So I decided to approach it from the other side: small and medium business have three things in common:
- Many problems
- Lots of opportunities
- Limited resources
So how do you go about picking which problem or opportunity to tackle first, with those limited resources?
It is even more difficult, if you are not the business owner, but if you use this approach, you are more likely to persuade any naysayers.
Request a brainstorming session, with as many cross-departmental people as possible, you could even think of this as a team building session!
Ask each participant to prepare for the session by writing down all the problems they are aware of, whether these are big glaring issues, or small little pet peeves. You can even ask the following thought provoking questions:
- What issue keeps cropping up repeatedly, regardless of previous changes made?
- What issue is repeatedly bemoaned and discussed in meetings?
- What task do you keep having to repeat, that should not be necessary?
- What process or activities do you want to change, because as it stands it is frustrating?
Then, ask the participants to list the three biggest opportunities that they are aware of, that the business is failing to realise.
During the brainstorming session, allow everybody to give their suggestions. You will notice that some problems will keep cropping up, with a single problem often affecting multiple departments.
Once you have all the suggestions, whether they are problems or opportunities, listed and sorted, it is time to categorise them.
So how do you categories problems?
The first category is of course those big problems/opportunities, that will bring many benefits, but will most likely be very resource intensive, both in terms of people and money.
At the opposite end you have the quick wins. These will not take a lot of time or effort to realise, but will also not be ground breaking.
The final categories are all the in-betweeners, those that fit in neither category. These are also usually the ones that are ignored or fall by the wayside.
You could also categorise the problems, specifically, by how many people and departments are affected by it. Opportunities could be categorised by their cost to benefit ratio, where the opportunity with the best ration have the highest priority.
You and your team will now have a list of categorised problems and opportunities. Now is the perfect time to agree which to tackle, and get agreement on who needs to be involved. Anybody who is not involved in this project, can be put to work on some of the quick wins.
So, are we done?
No, I would suggest a handful of further steps, before you tackle your chosen project. The first is to ensure that you have identified the root cause of the problem. You can use a fish bone analysis or the “5 Why?” methodology, or which ever works best in your environment, to establish root cause.
Once you know what the root cause is, further issues that this problem may be causing will become apparent. This is further support as to why this problem needs to be addressed now. This would also be a good time to clearly document the impacts of the problem. This should not just be limited to direct and indirect costs, but also time wasted, opportunities lost and the emotional impact on staff. By quantifying these impacts, you will have an idea what the spend, in terms of money and time, should be, to solve the problem. If the costs are greater than the impact, then it is time to reconsider this project.
With the root cause clearly defined, you can summarise how the current situation came to be. In other words: What historical events lead up to the root cause. This is important, to ensure history is not repeated, but can also clearly give a reason for why it is important to solve this problem now. This builds a strong business case for addressing this as a project, above other projects.
The last step is to describe the ideal outcome of the project. What would your organisation function like once this problem is solved? This is important to ensure that whatever solution is implemented actually solves the root cause problem, and drives the organisation in the intended direction, with a much reduced risk of scope creep and cost overruns.
What, really, all this work for one project?
If you think that this is a lot of work, for just one project, you are correct. This is why I would suggest this becomes part of your regular management reviews, or at the very least your annual strategy sessions.