I don’t know about you, but if I could achieve more and do less, that would be a dream.  But does it have to be a dream?

It’s been several months since I took the time to write a blog.  Why?  Well, like most of you, I’ve been pulled in 20 directions.  With the family home since March, I am constantly shifting from cook, work, teacher, maid, back to work, in home tech department….you know the drill.  The world is completely different in so many ways and plenty of people have written articles, blogs and newsletters talking about the impacts of our changing world on our lives and on businesses of every size and type.

The fact is, businesses have been forced to reduce staff, make changes, and shift their priorities.  As a result, we are all trying to maintain results and profitability with less resources.  But this issue isn’t completely new.  How often have we added onto our “to do” list and tried to “do it all” without taking something else that is less impactful off the list….how often do we actually take the time to prioritize!

I’m a firm believer in strategic prioritization and the impact it can have on your business (and life for that matter!).  Now more than ever, we need to be thoughtful in where we use our resources (and by that I mean our people and money).  Everyone is spread thin personally and professionally and if you find a way to lighten the load, I bet your team will thank you for it.  Follow these 5 simple steps and you can be a hero to your staff when they feel the benefit of a lightened workload and actually can breathe again!

Here are 5 simple steps to ACHIEVE MORE BY DOING LESS!

1. Define success – What are the top three to five things that your business (or department) must achieve in order to be successful? Consider holding a brainstorming session with you team.  Have the group share different measures of success and note everyone’s thoughts on a white board (NOTE:  In this virtual environment there are lots of great tools to “white board” electronically while in virtual meetings!).  Identify themes across all of the ideas you’ve compiled allowing you to group and shorten the list.  When you’ve gotten to a condensed list of key themes, take the time to get the group to agree upon the most critical success factors.

Once you can clearly articulate success, then you should only spend your resources on things that help you achieve that success.

2. Create a comprehensive list of what you’re working on– yes, yes, I’m telling you to create another list.  I am a list person.  When I’ve got a list, I feel structured and in control, however, creating a complete list of projects isn’t as easy as it sounds.  I recently worked with a client on this exercise and we found that everyone defined projects differently in the group.  Some were listing day to day activities that were a part of ordinary operations.  Others were listing true initiatives.  I feel the latter is what you are looking for.  This exercise isn’t about standard operating procedures.  This is where you are focusing on those projects that are outside of your typical budget and require additional resources with a specific goal in mind.

I can promise you that this is one list that you will find has great value.

3. Rank your list of projects against how you measure success – Now it is time to bring step 2 and 3 together so you can achieve more by doing less! (Nerd Alert! I come from a finance background, so I like to get analytical in this step.) I contemplate the importance of each of my success measures and place a weight on each.  The weight is based on how important the success factor is to the business.  The weights need to add up to 100%.  Rank each project/initiative against the success factors (you can use a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest).  When you multiple the weight against the ranking, you come up with a score for the project.  Sort your projects so those with the highest scores rise to the top.  Those with the lowest scores will fall to the bottom.

4. Review the results- I know it’s not easy to just stop working on certain projects and there are of course consequences of doing so, but you need to focus on what is going to have the biggest impact on your business. What will deliver the greatest return on investment?  What will help you achieve success?  Get it?  Achieve more by doing less!  If you try to focus on it all, you will most likely not have the ability to do anything well, especially those things that deliver the greatest profitability and success to your business.

5. Share it with the entire team – I can’t stress to you enough, the importance of being inclusive when you go through an exercise of this kind. If there are projects or initiatives that the team is working on that fell to the bottom of the list, they may feel vulnerable or at risk because their work “isn’t of high importance”.  This is where you as the leader of the organization need to be smart, thoughtful, and considerate in your ability to redistribute the workload and help clearly articulate the importance of why you are doing this.  Create clear goals, deliverable and next steps so everyone knows exactly what they should be doing and why!

Are you a believer that you really can achieve more doing less? Are you willing to drive change?

Here’s the part where I’ve got to get real……you can do all of this but choose to then do nothing.  I’ve seen it happen. You and your team take the time to create your list of projects, score, rank and then things fall back to the way they were before without any change.  You continue to add onto the list without taking anything off and don’t even consider stopping a project that isn’t providing the highest return to your business.  Why you ask?  It seems so simple.  Could it be a fear of losing business or the unknown?

Break the Fear:

I can’t stress enough how important it is to break your fear and stay focused on those things that have the greatest impact to your business’ success.  Shedding the weight of extra projects and initiatives that eat through resources with little impact will directly drive profits to your bottom line.

Start small. Slow or stop the projects that fell to the bottom of your list and track the results for 30 days, then 60.  See a change?  Slow or stop additional projects.  Over time, you’ll see and feel the direct benefits.

Remember, you are doing this because:

(1) You can’t do it all (especially with less resources)

(2) The greatest successes come from doing “fewer things well”

(3) Your people (and you) deserve to have more balance (especially during times when we are balancing more than we ever have).

If the concept of strategic prioritization is of interest to you but you just don’t know how to get started, then download my prioritization tool as a resource to assist.  Not yet a believer or need help facilitating the process of prioritization?  Let’s talk it through.  Contact me so we can schedule a time to connect.