You probably feel like there is not enough time in the day for your organization to complete all of the work that needs to be done. Although you will never get more time, you can learn to be more effective with it. Once you are more effective with your time, you can then become more intentional about creating value with it.
In order to identify where you can create time, here are a few of the questions that may assist you:
- What processes can be automated or reduce the amount of time needed to capture information?
- What types of work can be aggregated or would be more effective to complete in chunks, as opposed to completing independently?
- What are some recent examples where time was lost within the organization? Could this have been prevented? Who understands this process well enough to ensure it is prevented in the future?
Process Automation
The first, and most obvious way that you can use technology to create value, is to reduce or eliminate work that can be automated. If you are using any forms within your business processes or requesting information multiple times, this data can be streamlined and structured in a more efficient way to ensure you are only collecting this information once.
A few common examples? Requests for any Client Information, any internal forms, and any information that needs to be sent outside of your organization.
Time Efficiency
The second way that technology can create value in your organization is to allow you to be more efficient with your time. One common example of this is within the sales department. In order to make sales calls effectively, you want to be in the right mindset when making them. If you are investing the time to get into that mindset, you want to ensure you can be efficient in making the calls you need to make. So how does technology help?
For many salespeople, the list of people they should be calling may not be properly organized. Additionally, they may need to go into multiple systems, or their email, in order to access information related to the call. Unfortunately, this not only wastes time, but also increases the chances of them getting sidetracked while logging into another system or accessing an email. If this occurs, you may never get that sales time back. When this occurs frequently, you are losing out on huge opportunities to create value for your organization.
Alternatively, what if all of this information was accessible from one centralized spot? What if you were able to block an hour and go down a list of customers, click to call, and easily reference and log notes from a prior conversation? You would be focused, efficient, and more effective.
Time Re-Allocation
The other way to create time within your organization is to re-allocate the types of work being completed, to ensure it is being completed by the appropriate resource. Within your organization, you have people with various skillsets and experience. Some of the lessor experienced people may not be able to perform the types of work that require experience and knowledge within your business.
By identifying the different types of work, you become aware of where time is being spent within the organization. So who’s time is most important? Well, if you are looking to create value for the organization, it is whoever’s time can create the most value with it.
There are certain types of work that are performed that do not require the skills and experience of your most talented resources. Additionally, as you look to leverage technology, you will need more experienced people leading the change and automation that technology can provides. This presents a great opportunity for your organization – elevate your most talented employees to think proactively and solve problems on the business, while providing them with the visibility to oversee the completion of work within it.
Turning Time into Value
The most challenging part when implementing technology is being able to measure the return on your investment in it. You may save people tons of time, but what value is that providing to the organization? Although it may be challenging to pinpoint the exact return on it, there are absolutely ways that can assist you in estimating what it might be.
But even more important than measuring the return on your investment, is clarifying the intent of your investment. As Tony Robbins has said, “Where focus goes, energy flows.” Simply by defining how you will measure success allows you to create the clarity and focus of what needs to be done within the organization to achieve it.
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