Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

Some employees keep the business running. Some employees propel the business forward, taking big steps to improve sales, production, or financing. A company needs both kinds, but it cannot burden the high-impact employees with too many mundane tasks.

A manufacturing manager looked at a product the company had been making for years. He sketched out an alternative design that would lower costs by 15%. Product improvement is part of this manager’s job responsibilities, but most of his time is taken up with shuffling workers around when somebody doesn’t show up, getting a broken machine fixed, or rescheduling production around new orders. These tasks are certainly vital, but the company would benefit greatly from more cost-saving ideas. One has to ask how responsibilities could be reallocated to enable this manager to spend more time on breakthrough ideas.

Sales managers often see this problem clearly. Good salespeople will be supported by assistants who can process orders and handle routine inquiries. Though this practice is common, some companies have missed the opportunity. More importantly, the concept can be applied well beyond sales.

Opportunities for big improvements come in many ways. One company found that purchase orders were taking 40 hours to be processed—processed, not shipped! Carl Cox used this experience to make the case for speeding up all process times. Other sad stories include invoices not getting sent out for weeks, production slowed because purchasing wasn’t clued into sales orders, and poorly written software leading to input errors. These stories always trigger the question: Why wasn’t this improvement implemented sooner? Often the answer was right in front of someone’s face, but that someone was tied up with mundane tasks.

At the very top, the CEO is responsible for growing the business. Many CEOs, however, spend most of their time-fighting fires: personnel problems, customer problems, and regulatory problems. Again, these are all important, but must not be allowed to monopolize the CEO’s time. One top leader said that nobody walks into her office with an idea for doubling corporate profits; they walk in with headaches being passed up the chain of command. Whose fault is that? Certainly, the boss needs to be open to discussions with her subordinates, but she must delegate enough decisions to preserve time for working on corporate growth.

Once the CEO has cleared some time, she should ask each of her direct reports who in their departments can make large impacts on the business. The heads of sales, operations, finance, and IT all will have ideas about who on their staff are creative visionaries. Freeing up some time for those people to make big gains may require hiring more staff members. Many companies pride themselves on running lean, but the big breakthrough gains will more than cover the cost of additional staff members who enable high-leverage employees to grow the business.

Big ideas can come from everyday employees—but they usually don’t. The big ideas usually come from people who are clearly different. Companies should be open to ideas and suggestions from anyone, but they should nurture those people who express frustration with wasted effort and lost opportunities; people who dream of great achievement and being part of a growing, progressing organization. A person with the personality to strive for improvement, and knowledge of current products and procedures, should be tasked with developing new ideas. That need not be full-time work. And company leadership must remind themselves that breakthrough ideas are not easily scheduled. There will not be one great improvement for every X hours devoted to idea development.

Senior leadership must encourage both types of thinking: keeping the wheels on the bus and developing new products, new markets, and new processes. Every senior leader should consider his or her own personality, and consciously team up with another senior person who has the other perspective. The company will both continue its current operations efficiently and make big breakthrough gains.

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