The secret to making your people feel faster and more streamlined than ever:
If they perceive they’re more efficient, they will be. (No spandex or NASA involvement required.)
Whether you think the new Olympic swimming suit is the greatest feat of modern engineering or the equivalent of pre-pool doping, one thing’s undisputable: It improves performance.
When you see those athletes interviewed about the controversial new equipment they all say the same thing: “It just makes me feel faster.”
You can capture that same feeling for your finance staffers, without having to break out the needle and thread. The key is to make people feel more efficient.
The best way to do that? Simple — ask them what they need.
Sure some people will give you answers like an automated T&E management system or an end to co-worker interruptions. But some easy-to-fix issues will also surface that you can easily oblige.
To ensure you get the right mix of reality and fantasy, when you do approach staffers about what they need for speed, have them group their requirements in three groups:
- Changes that can be made with an unlimited budget
- Changes that can be made in the next year
- Changes that can be made in the next month, and
- Changes that can be made after lunch.
Once folks feel you’re working to give them what they need to make them more efficient, they’ll start feeling like they already are. (Of course you will have to make efforts to make some of those improvements a reality.)
