Feeling Inspired
Over the years, I've been impressed by many business book authors and business event speakers. For brief moments they made me think differently about how I ran my own company. Their new and exciting ideas opened up all the possibilities and opportunities that different ways of working could achieve.
Making excuses
However, when back at the office and faced with busy day-to-day decision making, turning these ideas into reality was quickly forgotten. At the time, I put that down to being too busy, but on reflection, that was a poor excuse.
I now believe that being too busy to introduce change is no longer good enough. The business environment is changing faster than ever, and in my opinion, business leaders need to be very mindful of this.
The Book and Software
A while back, I read a book by Jeff Sutherland called Scrum - (The Art of Doing Twice the work in Half the Time). An inspirational read which challenges our tendency of treating multi-tasking as a positive. It promotes a new approach to project management and team building that has now been adopted by some of the most successful companies in the world, including Google and Amazon.
At the time, I also started using a software tool called Trello, that simplifies the planning of tasks. A brilliantly crafted app used by more than twenty-five million people.
The Desire
Jeff Sutherland's book is inspirational, and it was brought to my attention by a work colleague. And Trello was something we had known about for many years but had not given it a proper go. The difference this time around was that I had a real desire to make changes, and that's the simple step that is required. It's not even that hard to do. You just have to change your mindset and be open to trying new ways of working.
A £9 book and a desire to try a new app. - That's sometimes all it takes to make significant improvements in any company. And for you, it doesn't have to be this particular software or book. My point is that as company owners, we have to be open to change and new ways of doing things if we are to survive the next wave of change that's coming.
Final Thoughts
We need to embrace flexible working hrs, capitalise on remote working and embrace the use of AI and cloud-based services. We also need to work hard at promoting knowledge-sharing in the workplace so that we can finally wave goodbye to out-of-touch departmental silos.
If we don't adapt to the new working landscape that digital technology is shaping then our ability to retain and attract skilled and ambitious employees may become severely compromised.