Each of us has a difference between the desired and actual state of affairs. Between the ideal self-image and the real self. For one it is an abyss, for another it is a small strip of shadow. We live with this feeling of difference every day.
I can’t speak for all and any business, but private business has the same difference. The difference between what is desired and what is real. You want a chain of 100 restaurants, but for now there are only 2. You want sales of 100 million, but so far only 40. You want to work all over the world, but for now you only work in Mongolia.
The most interesting thing about this difference is that it must exist. That this difference is the guarantee that you have a future. You just need to look not into the abyss, but to the other side. Then you begin to move towards your desired goal. If you focus on the abyss as it is, then as an unexpected bonus you immediately get a bad mood at a minimum or neurosis at a maximum.
Someone has to make the difference. In the case of a business, it should be carried out by the company’s managers, its owners. This is their job. They are responsible for making sure the company has a vision of the future that is sexy enough for the entire team to want to go there. Companies without a difference can be called companies without a future. At the same time, they can have a magnificent, prosperous present.
But besides the fact that there must be a difference and that it must be constantly updated, it must also be actively reduced. And if I look around, I see a lot of companies with a future, and I see a lot of companies that don’t know how to reduce this difference. Judging by what I heard about the Japanese, this is how we differ from them systematically. They are a stronghold of a culture of continuous improvement. We are in a conceptual field where “breakthroughs” and “rapid takeoffs” reign.
Constantly reducing this difference implies many things. One of them is the ability to learn from experience and not make the same mistake several times. That is, if your video did not start at an event, you will find the reason and exclude this option at the next event. If your presenters make a mistake in the name of the company, then next time you will force them to pronounce all the names 10 times. Every mistake must end in a rule or norm. After repeated repetition, a rule or norm becomes a production culture. You simply don’t know how you can do it differently and how you can not provide for this or that possibility. That is, the rule itself is not even the beginning of the path, but a sign “The beginning of the road.” And the hardest part is practicing it.
If you make the same mistakes all the time, then everything is worse than it might seem. You’re not just not bringing the future closer, you’re not just not developing, you’re degrading. Because even to stand still, you also need to move. If you stand still, you lose value as shares of a company that is developing worse than the market.
Besides the mistakes, there are other loopholes for the future. For example, improving routine procedures. Now the same procedure can take not 5 minutes, but 30 seconds and requires much less effort from you.
For example, a contact list is compiled for each project. It contains the phone numbers of everyone who may be needed in any way at the event. From the director to the local taxi, which delivers cars within 15 minutes. Already having a contact sheet is an excellent and useful procedure. The problem with the contact sheet is that it gets lost among other papers. Remains on the tables. Lost in the pocket of the jacket you took off. If you spend 3 minutes before the event and enter all the numbers into your mobile phone, for example, into a special group, then you will save yourself from the unpleasant situations of losing a piece of paper and save time searching for the number.
No one would dare call this a breakthrough. But this is definitely a small step towards the future.
