What should my company stop doing

This blog covers a deep insight and provokes you “what should my company stop doing”.

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This Sunday I did some worthy things at my home, over a period of time, I had abandoned a lot of things on my balcony, some old books, bottles, chairs, etc., and I want to clean up all the mess, so I called the wastepaper man who regularly comes to our flat. It’s a huge pile, I thought he is going to give me a hefty amount so my Sunday evening is going to be colourful

The wastepaper man came he saw, the waste junk, and he told me a meager amount to that big mess. I realized I was living with unworthy things, assuming it will pay off one day, a typical Indian mentality

Are we doing the same thing in our business too? Come let us dwell on this in this little blog.

One of the best practices shared by Mrs. Sudha Murthy admires me. Even after they become filthy rich, their son and daughter are allowed to have only 10 sets of dresses, if they have to buy new ones, they have to give one set to a needy person and then add the new one. That’s the beauty of adding new things. One has to go out to welcome a new one.

Does the same principle apply to our business too?

Why not

We business owners bring new, new ideas, new practices, and new processes to our organization. When one initiative itself is not clear, we bring one more layer to that and one more layer. Finally, it becomes so complicated the purpose gets buried.

Have you noticed it?

The intelligent entrepreneur :

Here is an interesting story about Steve Jobs, when the Apple design team first brought the iPhone to Steve, the iPhone had the usual back and forward symbols like the one in Samsung phones. Steve stopped the design and said, this phone is too complicated; I want to operate the phone with one thumb and abandon too many buttons. The design team made a new design with one button for all operations. The rest is history.

The intelligent entrepreneur does not complicate things but simplifies the job by removing unwanted steps

I worked for one of the best design agencies in Chennai, when the junior designers completed their design and take the final output to the boss, he won’t say, add a few more designs, he always sit hours together to delete things, after doing all the deletions the final output looked neat and clean.

I asked my boss why you don’t give instructions to designers to do a minimal design. He said adding is always easy, simplifying is the toughest job, and that’s why I am here. Abandoning things that are not working need a lot of guts.

As an entrepreneur, our job is not only bringing new processes but also identifying the redundant things which are not working but are still practiced,

In our organization, there may be hundreds of things not working. Let’s take a quick stock

The unproductive meetings–stop it

New research by  Otter.ai  and quoted in Harvard business review -statistics show that about 70% of all meetings prevent employees from completing their tasks on time. Ineffective meetings not only waste our time but can also negatively impact the mental well-being of our employees, how many employees go out happily after the meeting?

Let us see other things which we may need to stop.

The not-working–net-working meeting–abandon it

The junk WhatsApp groups –exit

Useless reports which you don’t see–abandon it

The KPI and KRA process is broken–abandon it

The sales incentives are not motivating- stop it

The process I devised is not working–abandon it

The SOP is outdated–abandon it

The project is overrunning- discard it

Old ideas are running through our mind–abandon it

And there are other countless things that even, we are not aware of, so how do you stop doing unwanted things

Conduct abandonment meetings with employees every month

The next time you conduct a meeting with your employees instead of saying doing this & that ask your employees what needs to stop so that their time can be freed up and they feel lighter, ask yourself what is that organization should stop doing,

The positive benefits of abandonment meetings:

These abandonment meetings communicate to all employees, that management is recognizing, that all the initiatives may not be successful and management is open to hear and stop doing what is not working rather do it disengaged.

Free-up time for employees:

Stopping something will free space for innovation: when an old thing is stopped, it will encourage a new way of doing things which fosters innovation

The intelligent entrepreneur is not someone who adds up things, he is the one who simplifies things, and makes the job easier for all employees, and customers to do business with them it’s not about adding, it’s about abandoning what’s not working

Are you ready to conduct the stop doing things meeting?

Ask yourself,  what should my company stop doing?

Got the answers, if it is Ok to share them here in the comments box please do

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