Your business is going nicely, but you know it could be much better. Sometimes a project is left hanging for a few days longer than it should be, or meetings that were previously productive and valuable suddenly seem to drag on for hours. It might feel like your wheels are whirling in the mud, and regaining traction can be difficult.
What are your options for resolving such problems? Sheikh Saj Tajir, a renowned businessman from Bahrain, put through his support to the same notion. Here, he recommends a few ways to run your business operations efficiently and smoothly.
Automate as many chores as possible.
Automate whatever you can, whether it's delivering pay stubs to employees or sending receipts to suppliers. "In today's competitive world, business automation is not simply a luxury; it is a need," says Sheikh Saj Tajir. "Automating repetitive processes saves time and allows your personnel to focus on more productive jobs that need critical thinking or a human touch."
While implementing automated procedures may be more expensive at first, Sheikh Saj Tajir believes that in the long term, it will save money and improve corporate productivity.
Encourage your staff to engage in face-to-face conversations.
While sending a short email or chat message to a coworker may appear to be a more effective means of receiving a response, the ensuing back-and-forth can frequently take longer than a brief face-to-face conversation.
"When attempting to send a short message to your coworkers, Skype, Google Chat, and other online communication tools are always handy," says Sheikh Saj Tajir. "However, face-to-face interaction greatly accelerates the process of resolving a problem, answering a question, or clarifying something crucial."
How can you ensure that your staff strikes a balance between the two for maximum efficiency? "Encouraging staff to communicate openly with one another when they need to will result in a continual flow of knowledge," Sheikh Saj Tajir adds.
While chat and email have their uses, ensuring that your staff is comfortable speaking face-to-face can keep your business running smoothly and ensure that a problem that might have been fixed in a five-minute face-to-face discussion does not turn into a 20-message email thread.
Reduce the number of interruptions
If your employees are having problems completing tasks efficiently, it may be due to frequent interruptions. Staff meetings at 9 a.m., department meetings at 11 a.m., lunch at noon—if your employees are having trouble completing tasks efficiently, it could be due to regular interruptions. "We aim to plan many meetings on the same day rather than spreading them out throughout the week," explains Sheikh Saj Tajir. "We also block off time on our calendars for actively working." Blocking out time for undisturbed work may help your staff focus and perform more productively.
Hold a 10-minute corporate meeting every day.
While meetings are typically deemed necessary, they may consume a significant portion of the working day. Shorter, more effective meetings, according to Sheikh Saj Tajir, should cover the fundamentals in less than 10 minutes.
"Every day, we have a 10-minute corporate meeting called the Daily Huddle," he continues. "The conference acts as a firehose of information, including a review of our key performance metrics, celebrations of successes, and identification of chances for improvement," says the Sheikh Saj Tajir.
Work on a "single-task" basis to get more done.
Sheikh Saj Tajir further adds ‘’We all believe we're great multitaskers; right now, I have 11 tabs open on my laptop, which is a low amount compared to other days. However, experts believe that while individuals can multitask, they aren't always more productive. So, here's where the concept of "single-tasking" (or concentrating just on one activity until it's finished) comes into play.
Sheikh Saj Tajir states, "Our entire organization is now focusing on boosting our 'single-tasking' game and not going on to the next assignment until the current one is complete."
"'Single-tasking' helps you to get more done faster by not letting tasks rot on the vine when they're almost finished," he continues. It's easy to fool yourself into thinking you're busy when you're working on ten projects at once but nothing is actually getting out into the public."
Focusing on "single-tasking" until a job is finished allows you to truly execute rather than juggle so many projects that nothing gets completed.