Doing Less With Less

This week’s blog post marks the third in a new four-part series – Breaking Barriers (In) Real-Time. Each week in May I will be exploring popular examples of emergent issues in business and popular culture. These issues will be analyzed through my Breaking Barriers system of professional development. I hope that the insights gleaned from these everyday examples will provide accessible, constructive support for you as you navigate similar challenges.

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Lately, the business world is resounding with axiomatic, hyperbolistic statements about the need to do more with less. The disconcerting refrain goes something like this: “We’re laying off half of our workforce, those who remain will just have to do more with less.” Unfortunately, these positive reframes on staff reduction are turning into bragging rights. The other day I heard a manager say that she is now doing the work of three people! Really?

I’ll be the first to say that the downturn is requiring more from everyone, however, in most cases people are simply doing less with less. It is a myth to think that one can flip a switch and double or triple their capacity overnight. While the fat trimming does create more capacity, it is not at the level required by most cutbacks. So what does this mean and what should you do? Let’s use process of elimination to get to a reasonable conclusion:

Should we just multitask more?
No, multitasking is not the answer. Although multitasking has been widely recognized as an important skill in today’s fast paced and competitive business environment, new research indicates that multitasking not only results in the loss of time, but it reduces our overall effectiveness and the accuracy of our work. It turns out that the busyness associated with switching back and forth between tasks reduces the valuable self-talk and mental processing time we actually need to make good decisions. Rather than saving us time and money, multitasking can represent as much as a 40% reduction in our overall productivity. That’s not very efficient.

Should we just work more days and longer hours?
No, working harder is not the answer. While there may be some short-term benefit from this extra time, burn out from this tact would further cripple the productivity of the workforce.

Should we re-focus our priorities on the most essential organizational objectives and then set aside the appropriate level of resources required to meet them?
Yes, in my experience, this is the best anecdote to doing less with less. Let’s face it; everything is not created equal in the workplace. One of the most common mistakes managers and leaders make is to treat all outcomes the same. This is often called whitewashing because everything is made to look the same on the surface.

When we treat all goals and outcomes the same, we inadvertently divert our energy and attention away from the most critical priorities. In a challenging business environment, this distraction from essential priorities can be a fatal flaw. The valiant, but miserable attempts to do “more with less” risks leaving the more difficult challenges left undone. This requires us to be brutally honest about what matters most and to make hard choices about goals that we may not succeed at initially. All of us, especially managers and leaders, must distinguish good successes from okay successes in order to instill “top of mind focus” on the most essential priorities. When we do this, we’ll stop whitewashing and the true colors of our goals and objectives will shine through.