The current economic environment is the toughest we have seen in 20 years. This has lead many businesses to turn to a cost cutting strategy. The challenge is to work out how you can do more with less resource (in less time and with less money).

Many of my clients have been asked to cut costs, stop recruiting and some have had to reduce staff. This creates huge pressure for you as the manager.

So, now you, as the manager, have to implement this cost cutting. You have to:

• Find a way to cut 20% of your costs
• Reduce head count by up to 10%
• Stop using consultants and contractors
• Improve the productivity of your team

Essentially you have to do more with less.

Unfortunately the most common approach is to work, harder, work longer and get your staff to do the same. BUT this leads to more stress and your staff quickly become disengaged. In some organisations I have spoken to it has taken less than two months for staff to become disengaged.

Disengaged staff are less effective according to Gallup research. Organisations with disengaged staff are less profitable. So how do you do more with less and keep staff engaged.

You must think differently.

The first step is to step outside your current mindset and view point. Einstein said

You MUST think differently. This is much harder than it seems. It almost always requires the help of someone outside the business who keeps challenging you to think is a different way from outside your current perspective.

The key to doing more with less is first to do less with less.

In all businesses, in all processes there is room to become more efficient. The 80-20 rule applies to almost everything. You need to identify the tasks that add little or no value and STOP doing them. Again this requires you to step outside your current thinking. The biggest insights usually come from people new to, or outside the business.

Now find the 20% that has the most impact

What are the tasks that sit in the 20% (from the 80-20 rule) of tasks that have huge impact. Increase your focus on these. How can these be done more effectively, more creatively?

One of my client’s has had a 30% reduction in staff compared to a year ago. They are producing their key outputs on time, with outstanding quality. The manager told me the other day that a year he would have thought it was impossible – yet today it is reality. They used the do more with less approach.

Are you going to be a victim to the current economic conditions or are you going to thrive. Most businesses will just survive, some will die and some will thrive. How can you make sure your team and your business will thrive?

In the next edition we will look at how you can find the time thrive in tough times.

Contact Time Creation for a complimentary consultation on 61 3 9849 1723.

One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when someone shouted....'Look at that dead bird!' Someone looked up at the sky and said...'where???'
Ahh the people you meet!

While looking at a house, my brother asked the estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, 'Does the sun rise in the north?' When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, 'Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff.'

More stories in the next edition :-)