management consulting productivity hacks
TRANSCRIPT
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Management consultant productivity hacks How to be lazy and still get things done
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Introduction
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Management consultants are brutally efficient
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In this presentation I will show you how to do the right things fast and efficiently so you can enjoy fully your work and life
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What will we talk about?
Selection Faster pace Team work
Issue tree
Priorities
Low hanging fruits
Benchmarks
80/20 rule
SMART goals
To-do list
Tools
Bottlenecks
Multitasking
Emails
Folder structure
Simplify
Standards and templates
Iteration
Smart batching and 1 piece flow
Automation and Delegation
Zero Defect Rule
Knowing for your customer and being him
Tools
Time budget
Collect knowledge
Bottlenecks
Up-or-out
Manage expectations
Sprints
Universal soldiers
Oh no methods
Meetings
Australian race
Templates, Modules, Standards
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Which frameworks will we use?
Getting things done
80/20
Theory of constraints
Lean manufacturing
Critical Chain
Lean startup
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What you will see in this presentation is are part of our on-line course on how to be productive. You can get it with all the additional resources with great discount
Click to check my course
Management Consulting Productivity hacks
$20
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How to select things that it makes sense to concentrate on?
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What to do and what NOT to do?
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It makes more sense to stand still than to chase the wrong
goals
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If you are traveling on a train, before trying to speed it up check whether you are heading in
the right direction.
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See the forest first and then the trees
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Can't see the forest for the trees
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Rules that will help you see the forest and not get distracted by the many trees around you
Go from general to specific
Look for main drivers (up to 5)
Start with an empty page
Be critical and selective
Get views from different angels
Don’t read too much
Set the stopping point for details
Don’t go too fast into details
Set time limits
Go to the forest
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Example of how to see the forest first – consulting project. Many go too fast to details and do not see the general picture
Going from specific to general
Ask for all data (50 points) Go through data Ask for more data
Analyze all data Find ways to cut costs
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It makes much more sense to start from the general picture and only after this go to details. It the case of consulting project that would mean start with i.e. asking for cost structure and only going in details for most important items
Going from general to specific
Ask cost structure
Create hypotheses for the main cost
position
Ask only for data to check
hypotheses
Analyze the selected data
Find the most important ways
to cut costs
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As a result you get the work done 5-10 times faster and almost all the possible effect
Going from specific to general Going from general to specific
Ask for all data (50 points)
Go through data
Ask for more data
Analyze all data
Find ways to cut costs
Ask cost structure
Create hypotheses for the main cost
position
Ask only for data to check hypotheses
Analyze the selected data
Find the most important
ways to cut costs
5-10 x faster
You get 75-95% of the impact
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Use simple math
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Whenever somebody mentions math you see the dreaded formulas
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There are some rules that are worth following
Find drivers
Round to integers
Calculate in your mind
Do sampling afterwards
Write down the rough values
Main things that certain thing depends on
Instead of multiplying 2,3 by 3,61 multiple 2 by 4
Make educated guess
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Imagine that you want to use simple math to estimate how long you will wait in the queue. You should use the following simple formula
Number of people in the queue x
Number of cash tilts
Time per 1 customer
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If you try to calculate the using the exact digits you may get lost…..
Number of people in the queue
Time per 1 customer
Number of cash tilts
32 2.3 3
Time you will wait In min
23.4
Number of people in the queue x
Number of cash tilts
Time per 1 customer
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Yet, if you round it up to integers you get fast a good-enough answer
Number of people in the queue
Time per 1 customer
Number of cash tilts
32 2.3 3
30 2 3 20.0
Time you will wait In min
23.4
Number of people in the queue x
Number of cash tilts
Time per 1 customer
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Issue tree
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Issue tree is a concept that help you guess in a structured manner the problems, reasons causing those problems and on the basis of this decide what should be analyzed
Area of analysis
Area 1
Problem 1
Problem 2
Possible Reason 1
Possible Reason 2
Possible Reason 3
Possible Reason 4
Possible reasons Suspected problems Analysis to be performed
Analysis 1
Analysis 2
Analysis 3
Analysis 4
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Have a look at an issue tree example for a chicken meat producer. We guess that he has 3 problems in Logistics
Area of analysis
Transport
High costs of transport per ton of goods
Big level of waste and breakage in transport
Possible reasons Suspected problems Analysis to be performed
Low usage of resources
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Then for those problems we try to guess the reasons causing them
Area of analysis
Transport
High costs of transport per ton of goods
Big level of waste and breakage in transport
Possible reasons Suspected problems Analysis to be performed
Badly designed routes
Too big fuel usage
No shipments on the way back
Low usage of resources
Badly designed method of packaging which makes the product prone to damage
Speed not adjusted to the product
Badly organized work and schedule of deliveries
Limitation on delivery time of finished goods
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Finally we come up with analyzes we have to carry to prove or disprove these hypotheses (that certain reason is causing certain problem
Area of analysis
Transport
High costs of transport per ton of goods
Big level of waste and breakage in transport
Possible reasons Suspected problems Analysis to be performed
Analysis of correlation between type of packaging and percentage of damaged
Analysis of time spent on the way and kilometers covered in that time
Analysis of designed routes, their length and the influence of possible changes
Analysis of fuel usage and kilometers covered by vehicles
Analysis of load carried on the way back
Badly designed routes
Too big fuel usage
No shipments on the way back
Low usage of resources
Badly designed method of packaging which makes the product prone to damage
Speed not adjusted to the product
Badly organized work and schedule of deliveries
Limitation on delivery time of finished goods
Analysis of level of overtime, daily organization of drivers work
Analysis of Clients’ preferences on delivery time
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Low hanging fruit
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We are taught to look for challenges. In real life it makes more sense to start with
the simple things that give you big impact
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Get the low hanging fruits first. By low hanging fruits we mean things with big impact and easy to accomplish. You should first concentrate on low hanging fruits and only after that go for other priorities
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Resources needed
Impact
Small Big
High
Low
Things with big impact that require little work
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How to find low hanging fruits?
Easy but with low impact
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Things with big impact yet expensive, time consuming
2
No
Low hanging fruits
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Office hours
1
Example of low hanging fruits for StartupAkademia
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4 3
Blog posts
Slideshare presentation
Impact (traffic generated to the web)
High
Low Resources needed (money + time)
Small Big
Udemy Course
Sniply Youtube
Events
Additional resources
Low hanging fruits
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Priorities
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There are 4 types of priorities you can use
FCFS – First Come First Served (FIFO)
LCFS – Last Come First (LIFO) Served
Due Date
SOT – Shortest Operating Time
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Depending on the rules you use you will do differen things first
FCFS
Write 1 blog post
Analyze sales results
Send email
Read 4 articles
Pay for cable TV
Task When it came Deadline
Time needed for completion In minutes
01.04
01.04
02.04
02.04
03.04
10.04
04.04
09.04
11.04
04.04
120
30
2
25
4
1
2
3
4
5
LCFS
5
4
3
2
1
Deadline
4
1
3
5
2
SOT
5
4
1
3
2
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I use apply a mixture of SOT and Deadlines as it gives biggest impact fast especially in a team set-up
Write 1 blog post
Analyze sales results
Send email
Read 4 articles
Pay for cable TV
Task When it came Deadline
Time needed for completion In minutes
01.04
01.04
02.04
02.04
03.04
10.04
04.04
09.04
11.04
04.04
120
30
2
25
4
Deadline
4
1
3
5
2
SOT
5
4
1
3
2
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Benchmarks
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Without some point of reference you will not know whether you are tall or short
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There are 2 types of benchmarks
Internal External
Based on previous execution
Extremely comparable
Very reliable
Detailed – can be put for each and every activity
Based on some external source (i.e. reports)
Not that easily comparable
They to be treated with caution
Only for chosen amount of activities
Can give you food for drastic improvements - by analyzing them you can find totally different method of working
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By comparing your results and benchmarks you can decide what to improve, work on
Internal
Salary
Speed of typing
Speed of analyzing Excel
Area Unit Current result
K USD
words/ minute
minute
5
40
15
4
39
10
External
7
80
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Your salary went up in comparison with your previous one but you are still below the market
Your typing speed has improved slightly yet you are far below the speed achieved by others
You not only improved your speed of analyzing but also are better than others
Makes sense to teach others how to do it
Conclusions
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Applying 80/20 rule in practice
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80/20 – Pareto Principal
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What does 80/20 mean in practice
Concentrate only on the big items
Concentrate on the big customers
Analyze the most typical cases
Concentrate on the most frequently occurring problems
Analyze problems with big impact
Your analyses should have only 20% of the variable that generate 80% of the impact
Start with subjects where you see the biggest difference between actual results and benchmarks
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Here are 3 examples of using 80/20 rules
Learning Visual Basic for Excel
Checking competitors
Salsa course
Area
Learn only the 5 most used items that will take only 20% of full course and will be used by in you in 80% cases
You check only 20% of competitors that sales add-up to 80% of the market
Go through 20% of the course to learn the moves and the figures used by 80% of people
Description
46
More details and additional resources you will see in our on-line course on how to be productive
Click to check my course
Management Consulting Productivity hacks
$20
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How you can work faster
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Create to-do lists
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To do list will help you to arrange you work into smaller actionable pieces
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There are few rules that will help you write down the to-do list and make the best out of them
Put everything on a list
Use multiple lists
Specific actionable things
Divided jobs into small tasks
Set pace
Use calendar as one of the lists
Go through lists regularly
Use tools to track tasks execution
Put project as to-do list
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You can use different type of list of to-dos
Next Actions
Lists by status – by Getting Things Done
Projects Waiting for Someday Maybe
Home
Lists by place– by Getting Things Done
Work On-line Calendar Phone
To be done
Lists by status
Currently Doing Done
Topic Research
Lists by production stages – example of udemy course
Presentation Script Recording Post-production Upload
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I use 4 types of lists
To be done
Managing me
Expecting from others
Recurring items
Managing personal team
Master list
Monika
Lidia
Michael
Lisa
Project done for customers
Project A
Project B
Project C
Project D
Supervising startups
Startup A
Startup B
Startup C
Startup D
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Set SMART goals
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S
M
A
R
T
Specific – target a specific area for improvement
Measurable – it has to be quantifiable; you have to have a way of measuring it
Assignable – it says who will do it
Realistic – it can be delivered
Time-related – it says when it has do be delivered / by which dates
The SMAR formula translates to 5 rules you should use when defining the goals
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Goals for ordinary tasks Goals for skills
Avoid vague tasks
Always for projects set deliverable, date and responsible person
Merge the task with the goal on the to-do list and set the right pace to a achieve the goal within the defined time
Set goals for improving your skills
Set goals for learning new things
Set goals for making the repetitive things faster and better
SMART goals should be set for the task but also for skills
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Imagine that you want to write a book. Let’s translate it into task with SMART goals
Imagine that you want to write a book
Define the size of the book and deadline
Divided into small tasks
Make the tasks SMART
Set the pace and execute
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You first have to define the size of the book and the deadline by which it has to be written
Imagine that you want to write a book
Define the size of the book and deadline
Divided into small tasks
Make the tasks SMART
Set the pace and execute
200 pages 1 page = 800
characters Time= 1 year
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Once you have the size and deadline divide it into small tasks. In our case it will be writing pages
Imagine that you want to write a book
Define the size of the book and deadline
Divided into small tasks
Make the tasks SMART
Set the pace and execute
200 pages 1 page = 800
characters Time= 1 year
Write pages
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Obviously “writing pages”is not SMART so you have to be more specific. In our case we set the goal as 1 page per day
Imagine that you want to write a book
Define the size of the book and deadline
Divided into small tasks
Make the tasks SMART
Set the pace and execute
200 pages 1 page = 800
characters Time= 1 year
Write pages Write 1 page every day
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Finally, you have to have a way of controlling the pace and reacting. In our case once a week you make a summary. If you are below the target you have to speed up or allocate more resources
Imagine that you want to write a book
Define the size of the book and deadline
Divided into small tasks
Make the tasks SMART
Set the pace and execute
200 pages 1 page = 800
characters Time= 1 year
Write pages Write 1 page every day
Measure every week completion rate against the target (1 page/day=7 pages/week)
If necessary act to keep the pace
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By comparing your results and benchmarks you can decide what to improve, work on
Internal
Learn Spanish
Speed of typing
Area Unit Current result
Level
words/ minute
0
40
n/a
39
External
Intermediate
80
Sing-in the course Listen to Spanish TV 30 minutes
every day
Enroll into a on-line course Devote 15 minutes every day to
training
Target
Intermediate in 2 years
Achieve 60 words/minute In 3 months
Actions
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Map your skills, experience, skills and set goals where you want to be
Sales projects
Experience
1
# of projects
Current Target
4
Industry
Current Target
Marketing projects 2 6
Supply chain projects 2 2
Production projects 3 3
HR projects 0 1
Excel
Skills Lowest Level Highest level
Negotiation
English
Optimizing production
Setting up on-line marketing campaigns
Current
Target
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Use the right tools and master them
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People tend to use old tools there are used to as they have no incentive to work better and faster. You can drastically improve the efficiency by identifying the right tools
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Let’s have a look at tools used in consulting
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First you list most often activites
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Analyze
Present
Collect knowledge
Manage projects and teams
Sell
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Then you list the tools currently used
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Analyze Excel
Present Power Point
Collect knowledge Database on Google Sheet with links
Manage projects and teams
Database on Google Sheet
Sell Direct sales and content marketing on events
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As a 3rd step you try to device ways to improve your usage of those tools
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Analyze Excel Learn advanced formulas , formats and VBA, shortcuts
Present Power Point Learn animation, using of templates, shortcuts
Collect knowledge Database on Google Sheet with links
Use advanced function and templates, use zapier for partial automation
Manage projects and teams
Database on Google Sheet
Learn advanced features of Google Sheet that will enable you managing the project or team
Sell Direct sales and content marketing on events
Increases your network (LinkedIn) and start propagating content marketing on different platforms (Guest blogging, reports distributed to customers, Slideshare)
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Finally you can look for much better options.
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Analyze Excel Learn advanced formulas , formats and VBA, shortcuts
Test Access, SPSS, R for specific purposes
Present Power Point Learn animation, using of templates, shortcuts
Test Prezio, Powtoon, Explain everything for this purpose
Collect knowledge Database on Google Sheet with links
Use advanced function and templates, use zapier for partial automation
Test Get Pocket, Evernote
Manage projects and teams
Database on Google Sheet
Learn advanced features of Google Sheet that will enable you managing the project or team
Test Asana, Leankit, Smartsheet, Trelllo, Nobe
Sell Direct sales and content marketing on events
Increases your network (LinkedIn) and start propagating content marketing on different platforms (Guest blogging, reports distributed to customers, Slideshare)
Use Linkedin Premium, Buffer, start microblogging on Twitter, Google+
Get cloes.io for cold calling and delegate it partially to other team members
70
You have to find tools for the most often done activities
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Analyze Excel Learn advanced formulas , formats and VBA, shortcuts
Test Access, SPSS, R for specific purposes
Present Power Point Learn animation, using of templates, shortcuts
Test Prezio, Powtoon, Explain everything for this purpose
Collect knowledge Database on Google Sheet with links
Use advanced function and templates, use zapier for partial automation
Test Get Pocket, Evernote
Manage projects and teams
Database on Google Sheet
Learn advanced features of Google Sheet that will enable you managing the project or team
Test Asana, Leankit, Smartsheet, Trelllo, Nobe
Sell Direct sales and content marketing on events
Increases your network (LinkedIn) and start propagating content marketing on different platforms (Guest blogging, reports distributed to customers, Slideshare)
Use Linkedin Premium, Buffer, start microblogging on Twitter, Google+
Get cloes.io for cold calling and delegate it partially to other team members
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Thanks to this exercise you can speed up main activities 2-10x. We start with mastering current tools as it is easy to ask people to improve at things they know then to make them learn new tools
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List of the most important tools for consultant
Analyze Present Sales & Marketing Knowledge Management Market research Team management
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Now let’s have a look at a different, yet real example of engineers preparing drawing of aluminum constructions for their customers
74
Below example of engineers in a support department that have to draw designs for clients in Autocad. They draw aluminum profiles but unfortunately line by line
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Prepare projects for clients
AutoCad
75
You can significantly improve by introducing libraries of ready made elements and storing previous projects in standardized form
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Prepare projects for clients
AutoCad Create libraries Store previous projects
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On top of that you can buy add-on for Autocad that reduces drastically the time needed for drawing
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Prepare projects for clients
AutoCad Create libraries Store previous projects
Buy add-on Autocad that changes the drawing methods
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As you can see by going the full way you are able to improve 8x and do in 2 hours what used to take you 16 hours. For a department of 4 people basically it meant that now they could do the job of 32 qualified engineers
Define what you do most often Find tools Master the tools you
are using Constantly improve and test new ones
Prepare projects for clients
AutoCad Create libraries Store previous projects
Buy add-on Autocad that changes the drawing methods
Time in hours needed for 1 project
16 hours 10 hours 2 hours
78
More details and additional resources you will see in our on-line course on how to be productive
Click to check my course
Management Consulting Productivity hacks
$20
79
Removing bottlenecks
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Bottlenecks are dangerous as their hurt the efficiency of the whole system. To improve the wholes system you have to improve first bottlenecks
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Bottleneck is always at the place where you have the lowest capacity. Have a look at 3 examples below
Example 1
7 5 7
Example 2
5 10 20
Example 3
5 5 3
x Stage capacity
x Bottleneck
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The are 4 rules that you should follow when it comes to bottlenecks
Identify what is the bottleneck
Increase its throughput by lowering the time needed for everything that goes through the bottleneck
Add new resources to bottleneck
Adjust everything to the bottleneck – so it works at the same pace
83
Imagine that you are working in a company working in a content marketing. Your bottleneck is writing posts
Research topics for a post Write a post Create illustration
Edit and modify post, add illustration
and schedule
20 5 7 10
# of post that can be done in a week by 1 person
xx
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If you Speed up the writing process (faster typing, better tools, shortcuts for the most popular words) you boost capacity to 7 and Creation of illustration becomes your bottleneck
Research topics for a post Write a post Create illustration
Edit and modify post, add illustration
and schedule
20 5 7 10
# of post that can be done in a week by 1 person
Speed up the writing process (faster typing, better tools, shortcuts for the most popular words)
xx
20 8 7 10
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Finally if you make the researcher do also par time writing and making illustration you boos capacity even further to 9 post per week. Writing post again becomes bottleneck. But with the same people you produce almost 2x
Research topics for a post Write a post Create illustration
Edit and modify post, add illustration
and schedule
20 5 7 10
# of post that can be done in a week by 1 person
Speed up the writing process (faster typing, better tools, shortcuts for the most popular words)
xx
20 8 7 10
10 9 10 10 Make the researcher do also par time
writing and making illustration
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Avoid multitasking
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What is the role of business analyst?
Pure evil Multitasking
When you try to multitask you get deconcentrated
You waste time on switching between tasks
It lowers actually your IQ
You can’t achieve the flow
=
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If you want to avoid multitasking follow the following rules
Check email only on set intervals
Switch off the phone / fb/ others
Block time for certain tasks
Follow to-do list using the priorities
1 task at a time
Make regular breaks
Make the tasks small enough
Test how music works with you
89
Avoid emails
90
Emails are causing a chaos due to its iterative nature
91
If you want to avoid emails follow the following rules
Write in clear and simple manner
Don’t respond with “thank you”
Send always to the minimal # of people
Send always to the person that can react
Use Google Sheet / Asana for projects
Use Slack for small things
Forbid emails
Walk
Kill the reasons for emails
Kill the iteration
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Create universal structure of folders
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In most cases in consulting you will be doing a lot of different project and you may loose a track of what you have done
Supply chain
General audit
Cost cutting
Sales Force Management
Marketing improvement
Cost cutting
Supply chain
Supply chain
Sales Force Management
Sales Force Management
Marketing improvement
General audit
Supply chain
After a few project you will be lost – you will not remember what was done on what project
Consulting and many services are bout managing knowledge
If you organize the knowledge properly you can reuse it on other projects
Therefore create universal structure of folders
94
Below an example of structure used for consulting project
Customer folder
Project A folder
Admin
Legal
PBC
Area A
Area B
Deliverables
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Talk and write simple, in a clear and coherent way
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Writing in a simple way is about following certain simple rules
Make it short and sweet
Structure
Tell in a pure and clear way what you want
Use bullet points
Kill adjectives and adverbs
Use the right format
Use the pyramid principle
Send it to the right person
Start from general and then go to specific
Conclusion first
97
Messaging – example how NOT to write it
Dear Kate You probably remember that last week, somewhere around afternoon, when I was strolling with my boyfriend in this humid day, we came across you and then when I was talking on the phone you my back turned to you, you kissed my boyfriend on the lips. Moreover, I day before that incident, when you were at my mom’s place at dinner you said that it was the worst meal you had ever had. On top of that, when my cat tried to approach you gently you kicked him and told him that next time you would bring your big, scary dog. Taking everything mentioned above, I must say admit that I cannot me your friend any longer. In fact it seems that I do not like you anymore. Best regards Mary
98
Messaging – example how to write it
Dear Kate I do not like you and I don not wish to see you anymore because: 1. You were hitting on my boyfriend 2. You insulted my mother 3. You hurt my cat
Mary
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Standardize everything
100
Why it makes sense to standardize?
Easy to go through what you have done so far
You can reuse your products
Less versions to manage
Brain works faster with standards
You can find faster what you need
101
How to decide whether to standardize
Used by many Often used
Last for longer time
Standardize
102
Below you will find examples of things standardized in consulting and a typical company
Folder structure
Consulting
Naming of files
Proposals to customers
Typical company
Agreements
Deliverables
Analyses
Main processes
Internal documents
External documents
Main process
Dress code
Language of communication
103
There are some rules for standardizing that you should follow
Use few standards
Internal standards higher than external
Round up to closes standard
Communicate standards
Teach standards
104
Standardization – examples of rules for Excel
105
What rules should be used when building analysis in Excel
Usage of colors
Consistency between sheets
Pyramid principle
1-source rule
Repetition of variables
Shortcuts
No mouse
Description
Data source
Master sheet
106
The most useful functions
Basic functions Financial / Mathematical Others
SUMIF / SUMIFS COUNTIF / COUNTIFS HLOOKUP VLOOKUP MATCH SUMPRODUCT IF AND / OR IFERROR AVERAGEIF LEFT / RIGHT / MID FIND CONCATENATE YEAR / MONTH / DAY ROUND / ROUNDUP /
ROUNDDOWN TODAY VALUE WEEKDAY
RAND / RANDBETWEEN MOD NPV IRR ABS MAX / MIN CORREL
Pivot Slicer Relative addresses Formats Hyperlink Remove Duplicates Filters Sorting Data Validation Trace Dependents /
Precedent Analysis Tool Pack
107
Create templates
108
Templates can save you a lot of time. They are area almost ready made pieces of work that need some changes to be used. It is great for repetitive work
109
How to decide whether to make templates
Often Used Can be reused
Time-consuming
Template
110
Define what you should create templates for. In consulting we use a lot of templates to make the repetitive work less time consuming
Sales presentation
Consulting
Emails
Data request
Project Time sheets
Proposal
Agreement
Folder structure
Deliverable presentation
Dimensions
For every product, branch
All standard emails: about meetings, data request, workshop, sales emails, thank you email
For every product (project type) and branch – Word
For every product (project type) – Word
For every product (project type) – Word
For every product (project type) and branch in Excel Library of standard slides with typical analyses to choose from
For every product (project type) and branch – Excel
111
Create modules
112
Modules is something that helps you go beyond templates and used them in a situation that seem not easy to be standardized
113
Creating modules enables you to turn even things that
Sales presentation
About the company (history, experience, offices)
Problem description
Proposed solution
Pricing
Team
Contact Details
Rather standard
Unique
114
More details and additional resources you will see in our on-line course on how to be productive
Click to check my course
Management Consulting Productivity hacks
$20
115
Shelf management
116
Consulting is a place where the work is very volatile – one day you work 15 hours and next day you have nothing to do. What you want to do is use the time of low activity to somehow prepare yourself and absorb periods of high activity
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
117
If you have such a volatile work, you should create a shelf of tasks to be done once you are free. This to-dos should be properly selected and structured and can have the form of a Kanban
118
Below you have an example of defining of to-dos for the Kanban shelf
Product development
Read articles
Read 5 articles
Read 5 articles
Read 5 articles
Read 5 articles
Read book
Read 50 pages of 1 book
Read 50 pages of 1 book
Read 50 pages of 1 book
Product proposal
Draft in pencil
Draft in PP
Fill in 5 slides
Fill in 5 slides
119
Tasks from the Product development exercise you put into the Kanban
Education Product development
Sales
120
There are number of things that you can put on the shelf
Learning new tools
Learning new skills
Improving skills
Project preparation
Knowledge base preparation
Training preparation
Conduct training (esp. lesson learnt)
Business development
Template preparation
Product Development
121
Avoid iteration
122
As you can see in the example of email exchange iteration is one of the worst things that absorbs too much time and prolongs all activities
123
There are number of things causing iteration
Emails
Organizational structure & number of people
You don’t know people
Reaction time
Lack of clear priorities
Formats of communications
Lack of sense of urgency
Vacations and travels
No data / No analysis
124
Therefore makes sense to take actions and kill iteration
Avoid emails
Prepare ahead
Decision sessions
Create rules of behavior
Delegate things down the command chain
Simplify organizational structure
125
Decision session how it can look like?
Shorter reaction time
Huge time savings
Less noise (emails) and interactions
No effort to coordinate
Strengthen the team
…..
Get into one room
Do regularly
Take notes
Make decision
Come prepared
Be brutally straightforward
Why it makes sense? Rules:
126
Guess and prepare ahead
127
If you prepare ahead you can save a lot of time on the project. On most project data collection starts at the beginning of the project which is actually 2-3 months too late
Project Start
Task 1
Data Gathering
Analysis
Presentation & Discussion
End of the project
2 3 4 5 6 7
Project Start
Task 1
Data Gathering
Analysis
Presentation & Discussion
End of the project
2 3 4 5 6 7
128
Guess and prepare ahead
Tools
Aim
Time
Source of information
• Excel
• Structure your problem • Specify analyses to be
performed
• A week or two before the start of the project.
• Should take up to 4-8 hours
• Your own mind • Internet • Specialized literature
• Word
• Put into words your information needs
• After preparing issue tree. If possible at least a week before arriving at the clients premises.
• Issue tree • Former projects
• Word / Excel
• Create formats in Excel to gather data as raw as possible
• After preparing issue tree and list of questions for the client. If possible at least a week before arriving at the clients premises.
• Issue tree
End product • Issue tree • List of PBC (documents to be Prepared By Client)
• Formats and manual for filling them in
Guess what the hell is the problem?
Prepare a list of questions for the Client
Prepare Excel sheets for data input
129
Get rid of unused things
130
Why it makes sense to get rid of unused things?
Slows down
Takes the place that can be used by good things
Mental pressure
Distracts you
You lose track
Costs money
131
Since you operate on many platforms and levels you can create multiple messes. On all of them you should introduce order and simplicity
Desktop Browser Folder structure
To-do list Kanban shelf House
Desk
Computer
132
Deadlines
133
Why you need deadlines?
To know when it has to be done
To set priorities properly
To manage properly Parkinson Law
To communicate with the rest
To create sense of urgency
134
We have 2 types of deadlines
Internal External ≪
135
Know your customers
136
Who is your customer and why working for him will make you work faster
Identify your customer Observe and understand Implement in your
work
Description • Internal • External
Outcome • You know who you relate to internally and externally
• Listen • See how he behaves and uses your product • Observe how he takes decisions • Observe how he sets priorities • Create in your head his decision making model
• Know his pains an problems • Understand how your actions are entangled with
his every day life • Insight into mechanisms • Insight into preferences and customer constraints
• Use the knowledge to apply 80/20 rules
• Set priorities on things that involving specific customers using the knowledge on his constraints and preferences
• Doing the right things that will get effect at your customer
137
Be your customer
138
It makes a lot of sense to become your customer. This will help you even further understand how to communicate properly and what will give you biggest results
Suffer his pains and doubts
Learn competitors / Taste their solutions
Get to know other customers
Understand the customer language
139
Master your field
140
Who have to first define your field and the level of your excellence
Sales Marketing Operations Programming
Current level
Target level
141
There are number of pros and cons of becoming an expert in a relatively wide area
Expert status
Faster thinking
You can go further within certain field
No need to invent
Always ahead of the rest
Diminishing returns
Your specialization may disappear
In-box thinking
Crowd effect
142
Imagine that you want to become VP of sales. First you start by defining your current profile
Define your current profile
Define your target profile
Set your SMART goal on this subject
Allocate time for this or to-dos in the Kanban / shelf for future tasks
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 1 1 0 1 0
143
Afterwards you have to set your target level of things you want to concentrate on
Define your current profile
Define your target profile
Set your SMART goal on this subject
Allocate time for this or to-dos in the Kanban / shelf for future tasks
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 1 1 0 1 0
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 3 5 2 2 1
144
…. And you convert them into SMART goals
Define your current profile
Define your target profile
Set your SMART goal on this subject
Allocate time for this or to-dos in the Kanban / shelf for future tasks
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 1 1 0 1 0
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 3 5 2 2 1
Goals for Year 1 Sales – jump by 1 level Marketing – jump by 2
levels Operations – jump by 1
level
145
In last stage you convert them into tasks
Define your current profile
Define your target profile
Set your SMART goal on this subject
Allocate time for this or to-dos in the Kanban / shelf for future tasks
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 1 1 0 1 0
VP of sales / CEO Sales Marketing Operations Finance Coding
Level 3 5 2 2 1
Goals for Year 1 Sales – jump by 1 level Marketing – jump by 2
levels Operations – jump by 1
level
Allocate time Every Friday or 1 month devoted to studying Example of to-dos SALES: Reading 2 articles on
cold-calling SALES: Work on 1 day in a call
center SALES: Work on 1 hour every
day in a customer service MARKETING: Reading 2
articles on content marketing MARKETING: Reading 2
articles on marketing automation
MARKETING: Learn to use Buffer
MARKETING: Learn to use Buzzsumo
OPERATIONS: Read 50 pages of Goal (book on theory of constraints)
OPERATIONS: Analyze 3 processes at your company using OLE and bottleneck analysis
146
1 piece flow
147
Thanks to well set up process I got my tooth removed in under 20 minutes from entering the building to leaving it without the tooth in a taxi heading home
Register Take picture Tooth removal Payment
2 minutes 5 minutes 5 minutes 2 minutes
148
Why it make sense to use 1-piece flow
Maximal Output
Successes come often
No work in progress
Fewer chances to do something wrong
Faster reaction time
Brain is more likely to experience flow
Less distractions
Bigger order
Faster you discover whether it made sense
Lower waste
149
As you can see one piece flow for content marketing gives you more often results than extreme batching. Yet it is not as efficient
Research topics for a post Write a post Create illustration
Number of posts done at the same time
Edit and modify post, add illustration
and schedule Outcome
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
4 post every 16 days
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 post every 4 days
150
Smart batching
151
Smart batching is a compromise between 1-piece flow and extreme batching. You get some efficiencies yet you do not do things in big batches
Extreme batching
1 piece flow
Smart batching
152
Example of smart batching for content marketing vs extreme batching and 1 piece flow
Research topics for a post Write a post Create illustration
Number of posts done at the same time
Edit and modify post, add illustration
and schedule Outcome
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
1 day per post 4 days on this phase
4 post every 16 days
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 day per post 1 days on this phase
1 post every 4 days
1 day per post 2 days on this phase
1 day per post 2 days on this phase
1 day per post 2 days on this phase
1 day per post 2 days on this phase
2 post every 8 days
153
Why it make sense to use smart batching
Efficiency Gains
Some (limited) work in progress
Compromise between efficiency & stimulation
Suitable for known tasks
No flood of output for your customers
154
How long it takes to complete 1 piece?
Is it boring?
What Is the set-up / switching cost high?
?
High
Yes
Hours Weeks
No
Hours Weeks
Low
Yes
Hours Weeks
No
Hours Weeks
When it makes sense to use smart batching? Smart
batching
Extreme batching
1-piece flow
155
Automation
156
What is automation?
Full automation Semi-automatic
157
What is the benefit of automation
Huge Time savings
Some (limited) work in progress
Compromise between efficiency & stimulation
Suitable for known tasks
No flood of output for your customers
158
Examples of automation
Area Basic Tool Automation
Analysis Excel Access SPSS
VBA
Emailing Email Emailing programs with autoresponders i.e. Mailchimp, GetResponse
Marketing automation solutions
Pictures preparation
Paint Canva and Canva for Work
Content marketing
Power Point Facebook / Twitter modules
VBA for Power Point Buffer Zapier IFTTT
159
Examples of semiautomatic solutions
Manual Automatic
160
Examples – marketing automation
161
Examples – marketing automation
162
Delegate
163
There are 2 types of delegations
Delegate part of the work Full outsourcing
164
You have to follow some rules to make delegation successful
Same standards as you
Use your templates
Trained by you
Control tool
Same philosophy of work
Ordering tool
Manage capacity for delegation
165
Examples of delegation from management consultants - Option 1
Write in pencil presentation
Template in Power Point
Conduct analysis for the slides Fill in slides
Person performing the task
Overview and modifications
Additional analyses
Visual modification Final overview
You
1 day
sb
x day Duration of task performance
You
2 days
You
14 days
You
4 days
You
1 day
You
2 days
You
2 days
You
1 day
166
Examples of delegation from management consultants - Option 2
Write in pencil presentation
Template in Power Point
Conduct analysis for the slides Fill in slides
Person performing the task
Overview and modifications
Additional analyses
Visual modification Final overview
PM / Associate
1 day
sb
x day Duration of task performance
Business Analyst
2 days
Business Analyst
14 days
Business Analyst
4 days
PM / Associate
1 day
Business Analyst
2 days
Visual Assistant
2 days
PM / Associate
1 day
167
Have a look at what gives you delegating in terms of money
PM / Associate 27 day
Business Analyst
Visual Assistant
0 days
0 days
Option 1 – You do everything Option 2 – You delegate whatever you can
PM / Associate 3 day
Business Analyst
Visual Assistant
22 days
2 days
Cost of the project = 27 K Cost of the project = 10 K
168
Zero defect rule
169
Zero defect rule
Find the error as soon as possible and eliminate it from the flow
170
Examples of management consultants – where should be the checking points?
Write in pencil presentation
Template in Power Point
Conduct analysis for the slides Fill in slides
Person performing the task
Overview and modifications
Additional analyses
Visual modification Final overview
PM / Associate
1 day
sb
x day Duration of task performance
Business Analyst
2 days
Business Analyst
14 days
Business Analyst
4 days
PM / Associate
1 day
Business Analyst
2 days
Visual Assistant
2 days
PM / Associate
1 day
Additional checkpoints
171
Poka Yoke
172
Poka Yoke Example in office
173
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