How can we do more with less?

by Angela Ware

I was having lunch with a friend of mine last week when I asked her how things were going at her job. I knew that they had just announced a series of cutbacks and wanted to know how she was handling the change.

She shared with me that she was overwhelmed. She went on to say that everyone in her office was “trying to do more with less.” I am sure that many of you have heard, if not said, this phrase once or twice over the past year. But what does it mean and is it even possible? How can we do more with less?

When you think of a sporting event, teams are often forced to “do more with less”? Over the course of the game players get hurt and or foul out, leaving the team with fewer resources on the bench. Also players exhaust themselves during play, leaving them with less energy and mental agility to play at peak performance as the game goes on. Yet, some of the best sports highlights come from last minute plays. Why? Because when you have a will to win, you have a desire to find a way.

Yes, it is possible to do more with less. In the business world this translates into identifying ways to maximize our efforts and our energy using fewer resources. Team members have to place an emphasis on organizing their work to allow them to spend their time and energy on the right things at the right time.

Over lunch I shared the following tips with my friend: (1) remove clutter from your desk so that you are better able to focus; (2) use your Outlook tools to organize your workload so that you will be able to see everything that you are working on in one place; (3) identify the mental resources and skills sets of the people around you so that you can get answers to your questions and delegate work efficiently and effectively; (4) revisit your goals on a regular basis to confirm that your goals are taking you in the direction needed and (5) celebrate small advances as well as large victories.

In the end it is not a matter of doing more, it is a process for doing better.