I was driving past a bus stop bench in town the other day that had advertising on it, but with all of the snowfall we have had here, the sign was almost completely invisible. The poor realtor (I think that's what was advertised) who paid for that sign for this month has been tossing money away, since no one can see it.
If they had expanded their Circle Checks of their "business", to include any offsite locations where their business is "present", and checked in on this sign, they could have gone and cleared the snow away themselves, so that their money wasn't being wasted. Its one thing to do your Circle Checks around your "main" business space, but any other physical presence you have should also be regularly reviewed.
And we're guilty of this ourselves..... We had created a Facebook event for our upcoming Kingston small business training on March 27th, but we both failed to notice that somehow it got posted in Facebook as March 17th. It wasn't until a potential attendee told us it said the 17th, that we knew it was incorrect....despite both of us having viewed the page several times. More evidence of the need for Circle Checks - those objective timeouts to view things differently, where you can spot problems that you might not notice in a quick passing glimpse.
Aside from your office or shop, where else are you "present" that you need to check up on today?
Support for the Circle Check
Recently we heard a presentation about the principles of lean manufacturing by Jim Beswick of Calgary, who helps companies become more efficient and successful by focusing on the processes and aspects of their business that lead to things that are truly valued by their customers, and minimize the time spent doing all the other "stuff" that customers don't care about.
One of the tools he talked about was an observation checklist, a tool he uses with businesses to have people simply stand still for a moment and watch what goes on, identifying things that are not working well, or efforts that are wasteful.
We were amazed at how similar this approach was to our own Circle Check, a tool that forces you to take that objective time out and stand back to look at your business space with fresh eyes. This approach of taking a break to see things as you don't normally see them amidst the mad day-to-day rush of work and business, is a necessary step to get a full view of your business, whether its monitoring the conditions of your physical space as with our Circle Check, or whether its reviewing efficiencies and waste as with Jim's work.
When was the last time you stood back and just "watched" your business?
One of the tools he talked about was an observation checklist, a tool he uses with businesses to have people simply stand still for a moment and watch what goes on, identifying things that are not working well, or efforts that are wasteful.
We were amazed at how similar this approach was to our own Circle Check, a tool that forces you to take that objective time out and stand back to look at your business space with fresh eyes. This approach of taking a break to see things as you don't normally see them amidst the mad day-to-day rush of work and business, is a necessary step to get a full view of your business, whether its monitoring the conditions of your physical space as with our Circle Check, or whether its reviewing efficiencies and waste as with Jim's work.
When was the last time you stood back and just "watched" your business?
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