Look For Opportunities To Change

Looking around you, anywhere that you happen to be, it is quite possibly a safe assumption that you are able to easily spot something that is wasteful.  If you happen to be at a restaurant or at a meeting or at the movie theater or at home, there are ways that time and money are being wasted and no one is doing anything about it.  How often do you say to yourself, “that was a waste of time, it would likely have been so much easier and more efficient if they just did…”? 

It's simply the fact that nobody says anything and then no one does anything.  At the office, there are plenty of possibilities and plenty of wastes that could easily be uncovered, but many times there isn’t anybody to take the initiative.  Somebody needs to take the initiative or someone needs to make it somebody’s job to take the initiative.  But there are always excuses to why no one wants to do the additional work that is involved.

 The excuse usually has something to do with there not being enough time to make the changes.  Well, if there is enough time to keep doing something wrong and inefficiently, then there's surely plenty of time to fix the problem.  There can be the excuse that the problem is not as large a deal as it first appears, and so why bother putting any additional time into it.  Once again, if there is anything that people are noticing, and even imply that it may perhaps be a problem, then it is worth looking into. 

Sometimes there simply isn’t a qualified person on the staff to look at the situation.  Well, wouldn’t that be an ideal time to get someone trained in making efficiency a main priority?  It's easy to spot those issues that have been lurking around you and that the other staff members have been working around for all of this time.  It's easier still to recognize the problems once you start asking questions. 

Men and women are very quick and willing to tell you all about what makes their job harder than it should be.  They are very eager to let you in on what they have been dealing with and what looks as if it should be changed.  Of course, you could quite possibly figure that out yourself with a little bit of observation and note taking.  The willingness has to be there in order for the changes to begin.