And sometimes… less is just less

I was asked recently, “How are we supposed to make time to think, learn and reflect when we are asked to do more with less, and when we are measured on zero waste effectiveness?”

Doing more with less often reaches a point where it is no longer possible

That is a very common question across our industry, by the way. And it’s affecting organisations of all sizes.

In start-ups, the reason you are under pressure to make do is that, of course, everything is urgent as you invariably have short windows and limited money to make things happen.

In big corporates, those problems don’t apply, and yet short-termism reigns supreme as the world is measured in quarterly intervals and narrative structures demand sacrifices.

So in a downturn, divisions will lose budgets and people, but not targets or deliverables.

People famously ‘double-hat’ in big companies, and not because they used to work half days before the new set of responsibilities.

And of course, there is an element of truth in the idea that ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy person’. But there are limits, friends.

Now, there is the unspoken truth that, often, the things you are busy with aren’t the right things. That the halls are crowded with people you don’t actually need doing work you don’t need, or doing work you need in a way that is neither efficient nor effective. But people create filler activities, and it takes a trained eye to work out which is useful and which is just noise.

And that is not a big bank problem.

Bloating is common in start-ups and corporates alike.

Presenteeism and projects that don’t solve problems but create opportunities for promotion abound in companies of all sizes.

So, if we are really asking whether it is possible to spend the time and resources we have better, the answer is almost always yes, no matter what the size of your shop is.

Only the ‘do more with less’ imperative doesn’t come with a mandate to get rid of the time-wasting filler activities or process inefficiency. It usually comes with the acknowledgment that we can do more with less, but we need to change how we do things and not just work harder… but rarely does it come with the expectation that changes will be made to enable us to do just that.

And once you’ve either created efficiencies or come up against the organisation’s unwillingness to kill pet processes and projects, you are left with more work and no more time, and the answer to “How do I do that and allow time to think?” is… you don’t.

You can’t.

We’ve been here before, by the way. That’s how all the innovation departments came to be. It was in a rare moment of honest self-reflection inside our organisations when we realised we have no space for learning, no time and no headspace, so we hired people to do the learning for us. And then we watched them go around banging their heads against the brick wall of our own shackles. You can’t give them the time they need to validate their idea. You don’t have that time to give.

That’s why they were hired in the first place… only they weren’t given the mandate to execute and they end up chasing after scraps of time and headspace the organisation doesn’t have to move things forward, and in the end they are little more than the canary in the mine. And we already said this doesn’t end well for the canary.

Only you are the canary in the mine, too.

Because once you’ve streamlined as much as you can or as much as the wider organisation will let you, doing more with less reaches a point when it is no longer possible.

You eventually reach a point when less is just less.

And all you are actually doing is asking your teams to continue skipping lunch. Come early, leave late, work weekends, and they still barely keep their head above water.

And yeah, I guess when the canary keels over and dies we will then know that less is only more in fashion and makeup.

That process efficiency is a wonderful idea that we should execute with gusto.

And saving your shop from bloating is good management.

And that working your people to death and expecting them to go smiling is a terrible outcome, but it is an even worse plan.

So do better.

It’s a hard thing to work out, how to balance workload and aspiration in a realistic manner. But passing it down to your teams and covering your eyes and ears is not leadership.

You work it out.

And accept what you won’t do because there aren’t enough hours in the day. Be deliberate and honest about the things you won’t do. Because you don’t have the time and money for them – or don’t want to spend the time and money you have on them. That is leadership. And your teams will notice.

Your realism will get loyalty.

Your awareness will get respect.

And the pragmatic workload may get you people who go the extra mile, once the extra mile isn’t already spoken for with meetings you really don’t need to have.

#LedaWrites

Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives and breathes transformation and digital disruption.

She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem. 

Leda is also a published author – her first book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, is available to order here.

All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and comment!

Follow Leda on Twitter @LedaGlyptis and LinkedIn.