We all procrastinate at one point or another. Getting work done effectively is a matter of setting up all your routines to ensure you are as productive as possible.
As we specialize, we become experts in our fields and deepen our knowledge, but we can also miss out on learning about other areas that can have a significant impact on our companies.
Where there is growth, bottlenecks will crop up. What is essential is to identify the problem and to keep trying to find ways to address it so that the company can move forward and keep growing.
In The Great Mental Models Vol. 1 (public library), Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien give us an introduction to mental models and their applicability to our work and our lives. Mental models are fundamental principles from different disciplines, such as engineering, biology, and physics, which can all work together, interlaced to help us think. The concept has become widely known in part through Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman at Berkshire Hathaway. He uses what he describes as a “latticework of mental models” to improve his thinking and decision-making.
We tend to associate creativity with artists and writers and their inspiring sculptures, vibrant paintings, and beautiful poetry. Because of the focus that exists on these brilliant creators, we seldom appreciate the impact that creativity can have on our professional careers. However, creativity is one of our most useful skills, no matter what work we do, whether it is accounting, marketing, or simply managing a department.
Creativity is what permits us to forge our path and our view. Without it, we remain a part of the organizational machine and the existing structure. With creativity, we can alter our environment, make it better, and grow.
The importance of having programmed processes in our company became apparent when specific necessary steps weren’t executed. We realized a client statement didn’t go out on time, and we once left out an action when we were closing a sale. I knew then that we needed to manage our workflows with set procedures.
When I began setting up our processes, I tried to do it for every part of the company. This effort turned out to be very successful. We were able to avoid many preventable problems, and we have also been able to operate consistently and with the quality we envisioned. I think this is where processes shine – they help you take care of the vital work that needs to be executed to operate as you envisage.
Implementing new ideas is not always easy. Sometimes we arrive with the best intentions at a new company and want to introduce many innovations, but we may come face-to-face with entrenched patterns within an organization. Even in organizations that we have led for some time, we might find resistance when we try to institute new practices.
Whether you wish to implement a company intranet, a new business process management system, or the use of objectives and key results in your company, you may face friction. This occurrence is normal, especially if it is not a solution to an existing problem but rather improvement. Having to learn a new tool or information system takes additional time on top of daily procedures.
I officially launched my blog over two years ago. Writing has been an unexpected path for me, full of trials and gifts. I write one blog entry a week around topics I find interesting or have found challenging as a business leader.
Along the way, I have also been experimenting with different types of material as I write. I started by writing about processes and systems and have moved to other topics such as productivity and overall company management. My articles have taught me and helped me clarify my ideas.
I often look to Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and Charlie Munger, vice chairman of the same company, as inspiration for my days. Both have developed a reputation as sages in the investment community and beyond. They invest in new companies infrequently and hold on to their investments for the long-term. Buffett and Munger spend their time reading, studying, and pondering and have been able to build a business empire based on this strategy of deep analysis and sparse action.
As I have been working on building my company over the past couple of years, I find myself often in constant action mode, completing one task after the other. As often happens, I find it difficult to find the time to ponder ideas and decisions. With time, I have come to realize that I must slow down to be more effective, as the idea is to take the time and learn to think as clearly as possible.
Often new ideas come unexpectedly, and they are frequently precious. When you create a new workflow or have a new idea about how to do what you or your teams do daily, the concept is often not enough. For the idea to persist, it must be institutionalized in some way; otherwise it may never be implemented. Then, even if the idea is ultimately implemented, it may disappear after some time.
At Celaque, we are encountering this problem now, as we are in the middle of systematizing how we manage the buildings we develop. Although it is not our first time managing buildings and we already have some systems in place, we are always upgrading how we do it. As a team, we come up with lots of new ideas for innovation. From keeping a book so that the maintenance staff can report anything that happened during their shift to adding bulletin boards so that residents who do not use our software platform can find out about our events and important information, we have been adding many new practices.