Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve written one of my articles for you and I apologize for the long delay. Over the past few months we’ve finished building a new home, got our old house ready to sell (it closes next week – hooray!), navigated countless prospective buyer showings, happily hosted a number of out-of-town visitors and moved into the new house. Then we disciplined ourselves to get rid of numerous household items we had no room for and wouldn’t likely use in the future.
It’s been a busy time filled with decision-making — choosing what was worth our time, money, effort and space. We had to determine the value of a wide variety of items and actions, then eliminate the unnecessary.
It wasn’t easy, but we were ruthless! Bwahaha!
Smart People Delete, Delete, Delete
Doug and I just finished reading the book Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson, a 600+ page biography of the successful businessman, SpaceX/Tesla CEO and founder of Neuralink, a brain science start-up. The book provided a great many insights into what drives the man.
Love him or hate him, Musk has an unparalleled track record of success and is now the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $263 billion. One of his guiding principles in engineering and business is to delete non-essential or redundant functions/components, then add back what is proven to be crucial to key outcomes. That has helped his companies cut costs and achieve innovative results.
When I worked in corporations, especially after a down-sizing, people were fond of saying, “No one is essential.” While I don’t necessarily agree, it’s true that we seemed to find ways to complete the mission despite the loss of headcount. Was there collateral damage? Did we lose good people due to burn-out? Yes we did. But we also found different ways of getting the job done — sometimes better ways.
One of my favorite quotes is from Coco Chanel. (You’ve heard me say this before, right?) She advised women, when dressing, to look in the mirror and remove one accessory. Her meaning? It’s in the act of removing one item that you place value on what’s left behind.
Make every item that’s left behind count.
Smart People Follow a Results-Based Approach
“The juice is not worth the squeeze.” —former Attorney General Bill Barr
Here are some questions to ask yourself: Is the investment worth the payoff? Are you getting the results you desire from the energy or costs you’re expending?
The aim should be to manage resources while trying to ensure relevance, effectiveness and impact. Results Based Management is a project management strategy that focuses on performance. And isn’t better performance (at work, home, government or in our personal growth efforts) what we’re all striving to achieve?
We need more people willing to ask the hard question, “Is it really worth it?” when dealing with, at a minimum, bloated budgets. My goodness, we all weigh that question in our own minds when trying to decide whether to:
- stay in a relationship
- pay for a newspaper (online or in print)
- buy a new or used car
- pursue a professional certification
- hire a new employee
- change jobs
- go out to dinner
- etc.
Smart People Aren’t Afraid to Ask Questions
The act of questioning is in itself a worthy exercise. Too often people settle for the status quo. They don’t want to do the hard work of making a change. It’s easier not to rock the boat. Feelings won’t get hurt by leaving “well enough” alone.
But questioning is healthy. It’s what a “post mortem” is for. You ask: What was the challenge? What actions did we take? What results did we achieve? What lessons did we learn? Now that we know what we know, what’s another approach? (This is the basis of my CARLA Concept, as some of you are already aware. Click here to download a free PDF chapter of my forthcoming book.)
More questions:
- What would the fallout be if we didn’t do “X” anymore?
- Where are the redundancies?
- Who says that part or process is necessary? Why?
- Is there a faster/better/more rewarding way of doing things?
Now that we’re happily settled in our new home, we’re dealing with new challenges, like the need to plow a much longer driveway and cope with snowdrifts banked by winds that roar down our lightly treed valley — not a lot of obstacles in its path.
Let’s not throw up obstacles in the path of those who strive to make things better — who have the courage to ask hard questions. And are willing to consider whether the juice is worth the squeeze.