Author: Joseph Coyle

In addition to all of numerous responsibilities that fall on the shoulders of managers and executives in the modern, digital age, we must add one more:  creative thinking.  Leaders are expected to bring new ideas, approaches, etc., to their business.  And though we hear a great deal of talk about creative thinking, making it actually happen can be a daunting task.

There are, we believe, two obstacles to overcome.   First, workloads and work hours are so demanding and distracting that finding the time to think creatively is difficult. Second, creative thinking, ironically, requires some structure or system behind it.  For this second reason, we teach leaders a simple approach to generating fresh ideas for their businesses, one that can, and should, become a habit.  Summed up, it’s simple: Observe/Absorb/Reframe those innovations that are ever present in the world around us.

Here’s how it works:  When you observe a Walmart Super Center that allows people to park their RVs in the parking lot all night, give the idea a lot of thought.  Does my company have any unused space that can be put to productive use? Is there some way we can provide space to our clients or customers so as to help them save time or money? Other examples:  When you see a self-service arrangement in a fast-food restaurant, coffee shop or even at the airport check-in, consider how self-service may come into play in your business, either for customers or employees.  And consider the brilliant simplicity of those rumble strips that loudly alert us to the fact that we are driving too close to the edge of a highway.  Maybe we need to create a similar safety technique in our business, be it a warehouse, a building site or a hospital.

Clearly then, we can stimulate our creativity by observing and absorbing the innovations around us and asking ourselves the pertinent question:  Can I make something of this process or technology? For starters, consider these:  automatic loaders on trash trucks to reduce back injuries; golf course rounds of 6, 8 and 12 holes instead of the traditional 18; curved shower curtain rods that create more sense of space; a coat check service at museums to allow us to stay longer; community office space in far suburbs so staff do not have to drive into center city;  robots that clean carpets or mow lawns; or the circular tags placed on  water bottles so that meeting attendees can be sure which bottle is theirs and avoiding opening—and wasting­—a new one.

In short, it is possible for all of us to establish the habit of seeing or observing the creative technology and processes that surround us and absorbing their value.  In this way, we gain the kind of stimulation that enables us to bring new ideas to our workplace.

There is a significant challenge facing executives and upper-level managers, one that is not often discussed in management journals:  ill-defined work.  The work of a leader is almost always demanding, even stressful, because it is not well defined.

To understand this concept, consider the work at a construction site:  The carpenters, masons, electricians, etc., know exactly what tasks they have to complete and know in great detail how to do it.  At the end of the day, these craft people know that they have been productive and have completed something tangible and substantial.  And they have a sense of satisfaction.

But what about the project manager, who spent his day in an office, either at his computer, on phone calls, on conference calls or in meetings?  Was he productive?  It’s often difficult to know because the tasks he has to complete are ill-defined and not easily measured.  Consider cost controls:  He needs to constantly look at the budget, at scope changes, at delivery problems, at personnel issues, at weather delays, all of which affect costs and profits.  But controlling these factors is not simple because they are complex and changing, sometimes hour by hour.  If there is a delivery delay, he has to decide whether to send craft home, find another source of materials, or re-direct his craft to another task.  Yet, he cannot turn to a rule book, formula or procedure that tells him what decision to make or what steps to take.

As a result, many leaders go home at the end of the day not knowing whether they were truly productive.  Was the two-hour meeting really effective?  Did we make the right changes in the delivery schedule?  Did we choose the right subcontractor? Have we kept the client/investor properly informed?  The project manager cannot be sure he made the right choice—and may not know for months to come.

One of the reasons why many adults cannot–or do not want to–lead others is that they are uncomfortable with responsibilities that are ill-defined.  We all know that a leader is required to be analyzing, evaluating, comparing, adjusting, and making hard choices.  And we know that he or she will be held accountable for the outcome of these choices.

So, managing and leading a division, an office, a project, an organization or a company is seldom going to be easy.  For this reason, leaders often relish those few opportunities they have to complete a well-defined task, realizing that the rest of their work day and week will be hazy, fuzzy, morphing and in flux.

Is it a wonder, then, that we so admire leaders who are effective and successful? 

No matter how hard working or talented any one of us is, we face a daily challenge in the workplace for which there is usually no easy answer:  deciding when to be efficient and when to be effective.

A simple example illustrates this challenge.  When we write to a colleague, do we simply send a text message or do we take the time to write an email, which provides more detail, elaboration, etc.? The text is quite efficient, yet it does not convey much information.  If we are in a serious hurry, we choose the text, of course.  But we should realize what we are doing, that is, we are deciding not to be effective.

For a more elaborate example, consider business meetings.  It’s efficient to hold a meeting in which we simply talk at the group before us, tell them what’s happening and what they need to do.  This efficient meeting doesn’t place a lot of demand on our time―or resources.  But there are missed opportunities that an effective meeting can offer us: input from our team; an understanding of how colleagues think; and an enhanced sense of team.

But there’s a problem with effective meetings.  They require a significant investment of time to prepare, send out an agenda, allow interaction and discussion, and address questions and concerns.

Emails and meetings are just two of the areas or arenas that require us to choose efficiency or effectiveness.  Consider others:  Do we have an open door policy or limit the hours when staff can speak to us?  Do we fly 2000 miles to discuss a possible new assignment with a client face-to-face or have a video-conference call? Do we teach one of our staff to carry out an analysis or just do it ourselves and save time?  Do we hire more service workers who touch customers or do we invest in automation, including robots?

To help us appreciate this principle and to teach ourselves to make decisions more consciously and deliberately, we can view its operation in our personal lives.  Do we throw a frozen dinner in the microwave or cook a meal from scratch?  Do we drive to the store or do we walk?  Do we read the book or just see the movie?  Do we work on our yard and garden or hire someone to do it?

Since there cannot be any fixed protocol or rules to follow when deciding whether to be efficient or effective, we encourage leaders to increase their awareness of the challenge, learn to see the two choices clearly and often, and understand that decisions are made in one direction or the other for good reasons.  The more awareness we bring to each situation we face, the more likely we are to make a proper choice.

One of the significant challenges facing leaders today is controlling costs and reducing unnecessary complexity in their business.  In our competitive world, most companies have little choice but to look for ways to drive results with the least amount of resources.  The phrase, “working smarter” may be a cliché but it is, nevertheless, true.  Thus, the first step we recommend to the leaders we coach is to focus on EARS.  That is, what can they eliminate, automate, reduce and simplify in their business. 

It’s important to note that eliminate and automate are often intertwined.  For example, many of us are involved with in-person meetings that require expenses for airfare, car rental and hotel room and a great deal of travel time.  Yet, videoconferencing, for example, can eliminate the expenses and travel time without much loss in effectiveness.   And speaking of airlines, they have been able to eliminate paper ticketing for millions of travelers, who simply show a digital boarding pass at the gate.  Hundreds of companies have stopped printing their corporate newsletters and simply placing them on line. Of course, in everyone’s life today, Internet purchases have eliminated trips to stores and shopping malls.

Automation is happening so broadly and deeply that it is not really necessary to describe it.  What’s important, in our view, is that leaders take the time to keep abreast of all the technology that is available and that may be relevant to their businesses:  e.g., additive manufacturing, robotics, drones, and self-propelled equipment.   One step we recommend is to do a web search each week for “the latest in technology,” which brings up websites that stay on top of what is happening in the present and what is coming in the near future.

Reducing and simplifying all the processes, requirements, activities or actions that are not especially valuable to a business are, in many ways, the easiest step for any entrepreneur to take.  We only have to buy frozen yogurt at one of the new yogurt outlets to realize that self-serve not only radically simplifies a process for the consumer but reduces labor costs for the proprietor.  Supermarkets are following the same pattern.  And then there’s EZ Pass, a system that has reduced the delays at toll booths and simplified the payment process for users.  (Of course, there is a downside:  It is also easier for local governments to raise toll fees!) Finally, getting our morning coffee has been simplified by Keurig coffee makers, which reduce time, effort, and the wasted coffee that sits in a pot over a warming plate for hours.

Although we encourage companies and organizations to think creatively and develop new concepts, products, and services, we strongly suggest that, as a first step, they carry out a full EARS analysis of all aspects of their business.  Again, to sum up the possibilities, we can simply refer to a cliché, “low-lying fruit.”  Or we can express the value of EARS another way: “Why not do less before doing more?”