Reducing Waste Within Your Agency

This morning, a new acquaintance of mine got me talking about how agencies and clients work together.  He keenly observed problems I have recognized within the agency-client world: processes that fail and the costly waste that creates for agencies and clients.

It is a subject I have long enjoyed studying.  While working at an energy nonprofit, I listened to building science expert John Tooley talk passionately about process.  I like John.  He is an avid reader, tells a great story, speaks with great conviction about the ideas in which he believes, and has devoted his life to improving the complex building industry.  By listening and observing him for four years, I learned a lot about process and quickly became obsessed with it.

There is a process for everything.  For example, what process do you use to wake up each morning?  An alarm clock?  Your dog’s cold wet nose on your hand?  Or do you have no need to wake up each morning, and simply wake up when you wake up?  No matter what method you use, there is an existing process in place–no matter how simple or complex it may be.

Quite often, we fail to recognize a process until it fails us.  Within the past month, a handful of people related stories about failed alarm systems that caused a domino effect.  One person missed a morning meeting, and apologized profusely about it.  Another person was two hours late to work, causing her coworkers to panic and think the worst, calling everyone to find out where she was.  There are countless stories like this…

John Tooley always preaches that systems fail, and not individuals.  He talks about a blame-free workplace, where the focus is on improving systems and not blaming the people using the systems in place.  (Should that utopia exist, please let me know.)  According to John it was the process of waking up, and not the aforementioned individuals, that failed.

Where these failed systems exist, waste can be found.  By seeking improvements to the processes we use, we can reduce waste.  Waste reduction has many great benefits such as cost reduction, profit improvement, and quite often a healthier client-agency relationship.

Waste reduction can come in many forms within an agency.  While there are thousands of possibilities, I have listed a few to help exemplify these thoughts:

• Improve internal communications between cross-functional teams
  Can you walk down the hall or call instead of taking a time to describe something in great length via email?
• Improve external communications between account managers and clients
  How often are you meeting with clients?  How well do you know them, and their decision-making process?  The better you know one another, the easier it is to move forward together.  Communicate regularly, but don’t over do it.
• Improve efficiency in meetings
  Are you meeting about meetings?  Do your meetings last a full hour, when information could be shared in fifteen minutes instead?  There’s merit to face to face time in terms of building relationships, but be sure you’re not over scheduling when it comes to meetings.

Remember, changing processes has side effects. Most people resist change initially.  It can be seen as threatening, or time-consuming.  So go about studying processes within your agency carefully and strategically.  Change management takes time, patience, and planning.  Sometimes the same advice you offer is more widely accepted when it comes from a paid outsider.  And depending on your role within an organization, you may be seen as rocking the boat; don’t be discouraged if you see opportunities for improvement, though.  Anyone can become a leader.  In the words of Seth Godin, “Anyone who wants to make a difference can.  Without leaders, there are no followers.  You’re a leader.  We need you.”

Change takes time.  But by studying existing processes within your organization, waste can be reduced and client-agency relationships can be vastly improved.

Have thoughts or suggestions?  Please share.