“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker

We are entering into a new era, one where we need to be acting with agility, considering how we can better utilise our constrained resources for the best return on investment.

Have you ever done one of those survival simulation team-building exercises where you’re in a disaster situation, and you have limited time as a team to agree on ranking a set of items related to your survival?

I’ve facilitated these exercises numerous times and they consistently and convincingly show how a group decision can be significantly better quality than the decision of the best member of the group.

Interestingly, one of the outcomes is that often there are hidden assets or talent within the team that are overlooked and undervalued, and if heard, they would have positively influenced the team’s survival.

The global economy is slowing, and many businesses are moving from a growth strategy to a profit maximisation strategy or even survival strategy, where they need to utilise all of their resources more effectively.

Challenging times represent a great opportunity to seek out creative new revenue sources and strategic positioning for competitive advantage, stop doing some things and rather focus the team on the most value adding activities.

To have the best outcome, we need not just to come up with the right strategy, we need to bring everyone along with us and ensure that we are enabling, empowering and leveraging all of our assets.