“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” Bill Gates.
There are a lot of ways to make a program grow. Scale seems to be the word that everyone gravitates toward. I love scale, and I have also found scaling challenging and risky (acknowledging that there are people who are MUCH better at this than me). I am going to focus on cycle times.
Every organization has a variety of cycles. There are annual cycles, quarterly cycles, monthly cycles, weekly cycles, etc. Some of these cycles are well thought out. I have also found that many of these cycles are either a product of the market or a product of habit.
Cycles of Habit
What do I mean by a product of habit? There are some things we do “because they have always been done that way.” There are leadership parables (link) about this, and honestly, we all do this to a certain extent. I think we call it “culture.” Fiscal year (FY) and calendar year (CY) cycles seem to drive cycles of habit. These are things like annual carbon footprints, annual budget requests, annual audits, etc. I’m sure as I start listing those, the seasons of your job are starting to flood your mind, and your to-do list might be on your mind.
Markets Cycles
We’re all familiar with market cycles. Whether it is pumpkin spice *anything*, technology, fashion, you name it. Some of these cycles reflect an important reality, and some of these cycles are just the way things have been.
Increasing Cycle Time
There are critical areas of all of our work where increasing cycle time accelerates and improves outcomes. A great example is utility bills. Most organizations pay their utility bills. Some organizations review their bills annually, maybe seeing if their consumption matches historical usage. Aggressive organizations assess their utilities monthly, which is the maximum cycle time most utilities facilitate. Making a jump from annual assessments to monthly assessments is at least 12X more data points and may start to change your decision making.
- Annual – Big picture changes
- Monthly
- Weekly
- Daily
- Hourly
- Realtime