“Don’t Half-

two Things,

Whole-

One Thing.”

-Ron Swanson

                A few years ago, I was sitting in my office trying to figure out why my maintenance department’s tires were spinning in the day to day muck. I asked myself all the who, what, when, where, why, and how’s. It wasn’t the people. We were rife with quality hardworking people. The tasks weren’t too difficult. It had nothing to do with where. It was the why and the how that racked me. Then it hit;

1. We had multiple people doing identical work
2. There were people doing things that didn’t need to be done
3. The things being done were to solve problems that didn’t really matter or even exist

These endemic issues created a lot of work. So much work that we half-assed everything and whole-assed nothing. Little was accomplished and improvement stalled. It was high time for change.

                If you believe that you and your organization is redlining the day to day but getting very little accomplished. Take some time to reflect. Ask yourself if you are doing a combination of things listed above. The first step to improvement is understanding current state.  Good luck.