Stuck

How to find what to work ON in your business.

Aren’t leaders always being told they need to work ON their business, not just IN their business?

Yet the list of topics most business owners feel they should give more attention to, is long and varied. And time is short.

So how do you find out exactly WHAT you should be working ON in your business, that will have the biggest impact?

Homer walks in with a full bottle of raspberry flavoured sparkling water. You are thirsty, so you hold out your glass. He tips the bottle and… nothing happens.

Why?

Because he didn’t take the CAP off the bottle.

D’oh!

[And now for an entirely seamless transition to a relatable business point...] 😉

I’m fascinated by CAP’s in businesses. Not ‘cap’ as in limit, but C.A.P. as in Critical Action Point. Those specific points in a system where just the right kind of attention makes a big difference in creating good flow in how work works for people. Getting things UNSTUCK.

Like when someone who has the skills to act on key insights, gets given the authority and support to do so.
Or when critical information is lifted out of a virtual clutter, so decision-makers can see it and act quickly when needed.

Inversely, when a CAP is ignored, it limits flow in a system. Which limits communication and decision-making. Which then ends up looking like the mistakes of individuals, not system. Which is devilishly frustrating, because simply expecting people to do better when it’s a systemic issue, (1) won’t really solve the problem and (2) gets people’s backs up and creates a culture of resistance.

That sucks. And then people leave - often.

Or worse: they stay and evolution stagnates. And then it all becomes too messy and complicated and even seeing the problem clearly, feels impossible. STUCK.

So finding Critical Action Points unique to a system, and dealing with them smartly, is important in any size business, throughout its existence.

HOW TO DO THAT?

Talk to your people. You don’t have to start with CAP’s and flows. Just talk to them about the way work works and what they need. Start small. Pick one practical issue and then focus on one or more of these systemic elements to start nutting things out:

Where INFORMATION lives, how it is accessed and where it goes from there.
The sense in PROCESSES – and how they connect people with one another in their work.
The internal MEETINGS held, who attends and how useful the agendas are in prompting the right conversations.
What enables good LEADERSHIP (Think about defined roles, and then connect it with points 1, 3 and 5).
The mechanisms meant to help people see and understand one another’s SKILLS AND NEEDS.
The INNOVATION ecosystem that is meant to nurture ideas and embed solutions.

And lastly, but most importantly:

Is it obvious to everyone how each practical element discussed connects with and serves a clear shared PURPOSE in the business?

Does this resonate? Have you perhaps done the good work of unblocking flow 'in system'? OR have you left a job in the past because nobody took charge of the CAP's in that organisation?

Feel free to get in touch if you would like to know more. Here to serve.

Jennekin

A system in flow:

A combination of personally motivated and systemically supported 'in system flows' creating dynamic function within an organisation. [Building Your Habitat - J. Dicks, Management in Action.]