I think quite a lot about ‘Muri’ – wasted effort due to overburdening or stressing people, equipment or systems.
It’s the Cinderella of waste, mostly ignored by management consultants and gurus. Perhaps because it exposes the dark heart of capitalism. The more you sweat your ‘assets’, the more money you make. Who cares if you break them along the way, as long as your pile ends up big enough for you to move on and do it again?
Things are different inside small employer businesses – at least the ones I know.
There, the ‘assets’ most likely to be subjected to Muri are owners. They are the ones who take up all the slack. Who ‘go the extra mile’, ‘give 110%’, ‘do whatever it takes’ to keep the promises they’ve made.
Not because they’re aiming for burnout, but because they haven’t yet realised that if they share the work effectively with their team, nobody needs to overwork themselves.
‘Sharing the work effectively with your team’ is easier said than done, and easier done than you imagine, when you visualise your business operations as a musical score, and your team as an orchestra performing it over an over agin, getting better all the time.
Putting this in place could be the ultimate exercise in self care – for you, your business and your team.
And everyone will thrive as a result.
Discipline makes Daring possible.
