Have you ever pulled a garden hose around your house to find it doesn’t reach as far as you thought?

You know you ought to be able to reach that one bush on the other side of the yard – but you can’t. So, perhaps you pull a little harder to get it to stretch. But it still doesn’t work. It seems to reduce flow even more.

Finally, you decide to walk back around the house. Then you discover that the hose is tangled up. The tangle reduces the length. It also kinks the hose reducing water pressure. Pulling harder on it just cut off even more of the flow.

The only way to fix it was to stop trying to water and untangle the hose. Then it will easily reach around the house and be able to spray whatever your heart desires.

Just like the homeowner and the hose, many leaders pull and stretch and get frustrated with their teams and organizations.

We know we should be getting more out of them. We’re putting in the effort and stretching things to their limit – we’re not getting the results. It might even be getting worse.

In my experience, most organizations miss out on an easy 20% of profit, time, or productivity. Something. It’s tied up in one or more “knots” back around the corner, somewhere up the line. The best way to get that extra 20% is to track it down, find the tangle and straighten things out.

Many Things Can Create these Knots.

Here are Three Common Ones: 

CONFLICT

Many studies show managers spend about 20% of their week dealing with conflict. This might be any conflict: One the manager is party to, an issue with a customer or vendor, or something between two employees.

20% of a manager’s time is one day a week. Nearly 2.5 months out of each year. And that’s just the manager’s time. It doesn’t account for everyone else’s time. Or the loss of opportunities. Or costs associated with concessions or settlements or anything else.

Learning to deal with conflict well is part of the battle. But when conflicts repeat or have patterns (at least 70% do) – notice them. These often indicate an issue within organizational culture or systems. Most often, resolving the cultural or systemic problem resolves conflicts downstream. Not just one time – but often permanently.

Here’s a free resource if you’d like help with an interpersonal conflict: Four-Steps-to-Resolution-Ebook 

If you’d like to explore this in detail, pick up a copy of my book: Conflict and Leadership.

ADVANCE PLANNING

The future is hard to predict. As a result, many leaders develop the valuable skill of figuring things out as they go. And that is a valuable skill. But it is also reactive and costly if it can be avoided.

Many activities are routine. Or routine enough that you, or your team, can reasonably anticipate and prepare. Advance Planning often allows more effective deployment of staff, tools, and other resources. Importantly, it also allows you to manage your cash flows more effectively.

Practicing Advance Planning has often had a much higher than 20% impact on profits. But most leaders would accept even 20%. Not only this, but it untangles time. Suddenly, clients are improving their bottom line, while being home for dinner with the family, taking their vacations, and overall – happier with life.

MEETINGS

I mostly make my living out of meetings. So, personally, I like them. But I also need them to be productive.

That being said, many leaders feel like all their time is taken up by meetings. And those meetings feel like a waste of time.

This isn’t a hard fix. Without knowing the specifics of your meetings, I can’t say precisely how to untangle your knot. But ask yourself the following questions and see how much untangling you can do on your own:

Is the meeting necessary? If not – cancel it. Could a memo suffice? Is this just a habit?

• Does every meeting have a clear leader? Someone who sets the agenda, makes sure it starts and ends on time, and keeps the conversation focused?

• Does every meeting have clearly defined “work” with a focused agenda? (Junk drawer meetings can be counted on to waste time.)

• Are the right people at the meeting? (Is anyone missing? Are there people who don’t need to be there?)

• Are action items clearly defined and assigned? You should always know who will do what by when.

• Are action items followed up on? Do you ask the “who” if they did “what” they were supposed to by “when” it’s due?

Making sure that you only have necessary meetings, with clear and focused work, led by someone, with the right people, and action items are defined, assigned, and followed up on – will return at least 20% of value.

What Are Your Knots?

Chances are your organization could be more efficient, productive, and profitable. You just need to go back and untangle a few knots. In most cases, most of those knots aren’t particularly scandalous or exciting. It’s just stuff that got tangled up for any number of reasons. Most of those reasons don’t matter now.

Just untangle a knot or two and see how much better your company will perform. If you would like help, give me a call.

Take good care,

Christian

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