It’s not about your resources, it’s about your resourcefulness – Tony Robbins

My to-do-list requires more than the 24 hours available in the day, never mind the 8 hours of a normal workday. Each day I start with the intention and motivation to reduce that list to something more manageable. At the end of each day more items have been added than the items crossed-off. This feels like a never-ending cycle and over time it becomes overwhelming. The resource under constraint is me, or more accurately my time.

Employees and organisations similarly can experience resource constraints. An example of this will be if an organisation has grown explosively and urgently needs to order more material and appoint more employees, but the cash flow resources do not allow the paying of suppliers AND adding to employee costs. A choice must be made. 

A further example is where a business has expanded on their product range to boost sales, but now the sales team, production staff and equipment are battling to deliver the variety of products. 

Resources need to be managed or better yet, optimised.

Where to start?

As with all development and improvement the place to start is with you taking responsibility and to be accountable for making the changes needed. I discussed this principle in It starts with you | wauko.

To make effective and lasting changes, we need to understand where the problem lies. Identify and understand which resources are constrained. Start by identifying bottlenecks and delays. Analyse what is causing these challenges. 

An assessment of current resources and how they are utilised is essential before resources can be maximised.  But what are resources? One definition of resources is – a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization to function effectively. For business this includes human resources, financial resources (capital, cash flow, etc.), materials, physical resources, intellectual resources, and time.

The assessment of resources can be done in 4 steps:

1. Identify and document all resources and how they are utilised.
2. Identify resources that are overused and resources that are underused.
3. Analyse the allocation of resources. How efficient is the use of resources? Are the correct resources allocated to the crucial tasks?
4. Identify the gaps in current utilisation of resources.

Focus and plan

After we have identified what resources we have and how we are using it, we need to determine what the most effective use of these resources are. In the book The 80/20 Principle Richard Koch suggests that 80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. Thus, by concentrating on the 20% we can achieve more with less resources. 

To identify the top 20% we need to analyse our results. For a business this can be to analyse sales and other financial data. Identify the top 20% of products and customers. Investigate why these products are the bestsellers and/or the most profitable. Understand why these customers use more of our products or are more loyal. 

For time management the same principle can be applied. 20% of activities will deliver 80% of results. Identify the most productive days and then what tasks were performed on or before those days. This is applicable to personal time management and for human resources.

Once we understand what activities to focus on, plan work and schedules around priority activities and resource availability. 

Record and measure

Optimising resources is an ongoing process. Use technology to record and measure the use of resources. Tracking the allocation of resources and measuring the results of activities will provide data that encourages a culture of proactive planning and allows flexibility in moving resources to priority activities. 

Having this data will lead to informed decision-making when resources become very constrained, letting you achieve more with less.

Distractions and Waste

Another important factor in optimising resources is to eliminate waste of resources. Evaluate all operational processes and procedures for efficiency. Outdated processes need to be streamlined and automated as far as possible to minimise wastage.

Limit distractions that pull focus from the 20% tasks. Where possible do not start new projects, communicate the focus regularly, evaluate usage of resources throughout and delegate non-essential tasks.

Conclusion

Resources are often limited with no easy solution, but in most cases, we can optimise what we have for incredible results. 

We just need to focus what we have on what matters most.

At wauperform we believe in building performance management from the business to the workforce, to have sustainable growth. We will gladly assist you with the process. Contact Dale Petersen on 021 819 7802 or at dpetersen@wauko.com to connect with us.