Making it easier

How do we make work easier? Quicker? More successful?

There’s a tried and tested way, which most of us ignore. It’s the well-known technique of taking 5 minutes to reflect about how to do things differently. Just 5 minutes reflection may spark work-changing ideas. Yet we don’t do it, or at least not often. Why?

Have you ever been in a field where the sheep have worn a narrow path across the grass? They follow the same route again, and again, and again. They don’t need to, but it’s easier to follow the well-worn trail. Maybe we all do this in our daily work.

Suddenly, a dog in the field barks. It occurs to the sheep to change their route. Voila! A better path is found.

Maybe we all need a dog’s bark in our work lives. The negative comment from a colleague, a client, a boss. An article we read. Any feedback which prompt us to 5 minutes of reflection as to what to do differently.

For example, last week a customer made a comment about searching on Appeal Finder and so I changed the default date range to 5 years to stop it automatically searching back as far as 2010. Why did I never think to do it before now? What other simple improvements make a big difference? Please do let me know. Please be the dog bark I need. How may I help make your work easier?

A final thought: What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: abcdef? Yes, you guessed it! The secret to making everything work better.