Book Review: A Factory of One By Daniel Markovitz

 

 

Fittest

 

 

When people say, “survival of the fittest” they seem to mean “survival of the strongest.” Interestingly, what Darwin actually stated was, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” So, the word “fittest” is about adaptability. Adaptability is the first fish to sense the water beginning to churn. Adaptability is the first fish to respond and dart out of the way of the net that would most certainly ensnare it. When thinking about adaptability,  keep in mind that there are two parts: 

1. Speed of sensitivity to change and,

2. Responding to that change. 

A Factory of One, focuses on how knowledge workers can improve our efficiency by banishing waste. Survival in the workplace comes from being willing and able to adapt our personal processes to improve our Output Value. A great quote used in book from General Eric Shinseki, former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army is, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

 

On page 9 Markovitz lays out the formula for our Output Value:

 

Output Value =

Value Added Act / (Non-Value Added Act + Waste)

 

Markovitz observes, “The painful reality is that most people need something more to help them overcome their natural tendencies toward chaos and inefficiency. ” -page xv

In addition to the “something more” boost to help overcome Waste and  Non-Value Added Acts, we need humility to admit to ourselves the need for change. 

 

Before we dive into the waste banishment tips from the book, I’d like to admit that thinking or talking about waste removal can evoke images of an ever tightening belt. It can come across as noxious business talk of being a ‘value maximizer,’ which sounds about as fun as a lifetime of unseasoned egg white breakfasts. Typically though, the waste we find in reviewing our habits are dull repetitive tasks, that when removed, provide more breathing room and margin in our work day.

 

 

Waste Banishment Tips

 

 

1.) One Time Pick-Up

 

“Once you have picked it up, you can’t put it back in the inbox.”

– page 32

 

The “pick it up once” rule tells me that I should not start doing a task unless I know I have the time to finish it. For me this applies mainly to checking email. Before reading this book, I would check and respond to email all throughout my day. I would look at the email… Think about maybe responding… Glance at the email again later in the day…Think about responding some more.

Now I sit down and clear out my inbox all at once. First, I move all immediate tasks to a project list. For my non-urgent messages I like to use the Gmail Boomerang plugin. Boomerang removes messages from my view in my inbox, and sends them back to me at a later time when I need to act on the enclosed task.

 

 

2.) Too Much Time

 

“Having too much time to do your work hides the waste and inefficiencies in your own process.” – page 67.

 

Markovitz opens up with what seems to be a paradoxical statement: that asking for more work can actually help us to do our work better. We might think we couldn’t possibly take on one more thing, but when pushed, we find we can do that one last weight lifting rep. In the work day we can think, ‘this is due on Friday, it’s Tuesday morning now, so I can take all Wednesday afternoon to get this done,’ when the specific task could actually be done in just 1.5 hours on Tuesday afternoon. Aside from being wasteful, spending too much time working on one task keeps us from opportunities where we can really shine!

 

 

3.) Compress

 

“As part of your work process improvements, try to reduce the amount of time spend on weekly activities” – page 70.

 

Make it a game to only spend 15 minutes on emails, to use just 45 minutes rather than 60 minutes holding a weekly meeting. Eliminating waste is especially important for meetings, since the true cost of a meeting is the sum of the hourly wages of everyone involved. Can you picture a ticker or stopwatch on the wall during a meeting? Each minute that someone draaaaags their tongue delivering a status update, another $6 accumulates… Another minute passes, and the clock strikes $12.00!

In regards to email, we can image how much money a company or organization spends just because of poorly written communication. It stands out that refining communication as part of our weekly activities is one of biggest levers we can pull to be more effective and efficient.

 

 

A few more excerpts:

 

 

“Keeping something in sight all the time does nothing but ensure that it eventually becomes invisible to you.” – page 34

 

“Like Ulysses lashing himself to the mast of the ship to prevent himself from succumbing to the Sirens Song, people can make the choice to limit their choices.” -page 75

 

“Until you can see the time required to do X, you can’t assess the opportunity cost of doing it.” -page 91

 

“We must make automatic and habitual as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against growing into ways that are disadvantageous as we would guard against the plague. -William James” -page 124

 

 

Challenge

 

 

Next week at work,  pick one process or habit and take the next month to banish waste from that process. Then repeat the process next month with a new task.

• Make a game of minimizing email time- only check it only twice a day.

• Give yourself just one hour to get something done that before would take an afternoon.

• Sum up how much time in your work week is spent in meetings, and as far as it depends on you, cut that time by 25%.

 

 

 

 

-SRS

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:

The Amazon links used in this post are affiliate links.
If you click through the Amazon links and buy the book, it does NOT cost you anything extra but Amazon does send me a tiny % as a thank you. If you found this helpful, and do decide to get the book, please purchase it through one of the links here.

Thanks