#149-Eliminate Redundancy
John (Intro): I have been on a quest to learn everything I can about leadership obsessed with what makes the best leaders so good. After running companies small and large for the last 20 years, today I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito and I’m your host. I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this topic: What makes the best leaders so good? Welcome to Tomorrow’s Leader.
John: All right, welcome to today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader, where we dive deep on all things leader-related, related to leaving yourself and leading others. I am John, and we know your host today, tomorrow, the day after, every day from here until eternity. So recently I had a horrible thing happen. My washing machine broke, which really sucks, really sucks, really sucks, because you never realize how much you need a washing machine until it breaks. You don’t have it. And I didn’t have it. So I decided just to deal with it and not do any laundry and just wear dirty stuff. No, I’m kidding. I didn’t do that, but it was a hassle. Thankfully, my fantastic twin sister is just two blocks three blocks away and I was able to come to the rescue. I washed my stuff there and the kid stuff. But needless to say, it’s super inconveniencing. I said a word. Inconveniencing. I’m going to go with it. I’m going to go with it.
John: So in any event, I just got this washing machine and dryer back last July when I moved into this place and I got an L.G., which I’d done some research on. I’m like, OK, that’s a good brand, blah, blah, blah. And I had, I think, this is what I did. I think it was my fault because I took one of these toys that were outside. They were disgusting. And I threw them in the washing machine and washed them. They came out looking great. But I think there was something, I don’t know, a stick, a twig or something that got caught in the drum. And since then it was making this horrible noise and then it just crapped out on me. It stopped, the water filled up, and it didn’t drain and it was a mess.
John: So needless to say, I got somebody out here who took a look. He’s like, OK, this part is broken. But you know what? It’s probably under warranty. Now, here’s just in my stupidity. I don’t even think about that. I just got the thing, of course, is under warranty. And here I’ve got this guy out here to look at this problem and stupid anyway. So he did diagnose the problem. He said, here’s the thing. This pump in the back is broken. And, you know, yeah, there may be something up there in the drain, but call L.G. They have a warranty and bubble.
John: So I call up L.G. I go online, I find out all the information and they ask me to fill out this form that was super detailed. I mean, what’s the model? What’s the make, what’s the serial number, which I had to, like, climb around to the back of the washing machine to get then it was what’s the model number that was on a different spot? Then I had to describe in detail what the problem was and it was just a pain in the butt. But I’m like I whenever I begrudgingly did it and filled out all the stuff and I hit send and blah blah blah, and they said, OK, somebody’s going to be in touch with you very soon. So the next day I get a text. I’m going to read this through here if I can find it. I should have had it pulled up here, OK, he
said. Bear with me, bear with me, bear with me. I got a lot of texts here. All right. Often the word is OK, here we go.
John: So he sends a text and he says: Hi, this is Javier with L.G. Services reaching out regarding your service call. If you could please send a picture of the model and serial tag as well as the description of what’s going on. It will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. I’m like, wow, that’s exactly what I did. That’s how you’re contacting me. As I filled out all that information, I climbed around the back of the washing machine. I gave you the serial number, I gave you the model, I gave you all that stuff. So I responded: Hi Javier. I’m not near my washer. Which I was. I didn’t want to, I said, but I had put all that info on the input form online. Don’t you have that? Don’t you have all that info?
John: He said we need the tag to confirm the information as well as confirm the issue. All it shows is the previous technician stated a broken part of causing the noise. Nothing was specified. OK, that’s not my problem. That’s a stupid system. Why would you ask me for all that information and then it doesn’t go anywhere. So now I have to go get it again. I sent him a picture of what I think it is and he said, nope, that’s not the right tag. It’s a gray one. It may be behind the panel in the back like I know because I had done this and I went around the back, climbed around the back, did the thing again, send it to him. He’s like, that’s not it. Can you take a clear picture? Any event. Yeah. Finally got his stuff.
John: But here’s my point. Why have redundancy in your system, in your company, you realize how much that aggravates people. Why would you ask me to fill out a form that asks me for all this information, then ask me for the same information? Not like a week later, like the next day. Can you go through and give that to us again? Now, if they had said, hey, listen, our system crashed, we lost all this, we’re so sorry, I still would have been aggravated. But I guess I mean, OK, I guess I understand that. But that wasn’t even the case. He couldn’t even explain it. I don’t know. I didn’t get the information, never reached me. I don’t know where it is, whatever the case is. Well, why do you have a system where all you’re doing is annoying your customers, you’re just causing them extra hassle?
John: Now, if I had another choice, I would go somewhere else. I wouldn’t go here. I have to go here because it’s my warranty. But if I had a choice, that text message would have caused me to call somebody else. I don’t like it. I don’t want to do that. That’s just and it just shows me that that’s a sign of the company, the organization. That’s the leader’s job. OK, that’s the leader’s fault. So I look at how many things in your company, in your organization, how many redundancies are there? How many meetings do you have in the course of a week where you talk about the same things or part of the meetings are the same or you have the same people and same meetings doing the same thing. And there’s just so much time that a week maybe that doesn’t make a difference. But now in a year or quarter, that can mean the difference between hitting your goals and not or losing great people because great people don’t want to put up with that stuff.
John: Redundancy is the thing that slows organizations down and it frustrates your best people more than anything. It frustrates your clients, your customers more than anything. Don’t ask for the same information more than once. Have your systems rock solid and tight so that when you ask for it, you ask it at the right time. You don’t ask for too much too soon, be ask it at the right time and then it goes into your system, your CRM, whatever it is, your
databank, and you don’t have to ask for it again. Maybe down the road you get it updated, but you don’t have to ask for the same stuff all the time.
John: How many times do you see this? I mean, it could just simply be not just meetings that you have that are the same, this redundancy and trackers. I mean, how many times are you collecting information from your employees, how many appointments they said or whatever, what their results were for the prior week or your sales team or your inventory checks, all that kind of stuff? Are you going through and going through the same stuff over and over again? Is the redundancy in your system? Are you doing the same thing that somebody else did? Are two different people doing the same jobs? How many times do you see that in an organization?
John: I’ve been in companies and I’ve seen that where two people actually have the same job and they don’t even really communicate with each other. So there’s even worse of a problem. So they’re both, in essence, doing pretty much the same thing. They’re not working together on it. They’re just duplicating efforts and they’re frustrating the people that they’re working with. I see this in organizations and there’s not a good strategic plan on when they’re adding somebody to the organization, where do they fit in? So there’s not. Nancy, redundancy is bad, so get rid of your Department of redundancy department. OK, maybe that should be the title of this episode. Get rid of your Redundancy Department and even a little bit.
John: Just share a story with you, because I know it can help you. I know this type of stuff. And I, believe me, I’ve been there myself, have led organizations, and there I’ve been guilty of it, too. I had different things. I was and I had some of my people tell me, hey, you know what? You’re asking for this information. We already gave it at Monday’s meeting and we’re doing it again in Wednesday’s meeting and then we do it again. Friday’s meeting. Why are we doing it again? Well, that’s a good point. Let’s collect it once and done. And then we’re good, right? Simplify, simplify, simplify, simplify.
John: So quick message for today. I hope you’re having a great week. We’re almost down to May. This is unbelievable. Weeks are flying by this year’s Flying By. Hope your year is off to a great start. I hope you are happy, healthy, enjoying all kinds of success in business and life in general. And Dm me, let me know how things are going and issues you have or things that you want me to talk about in these podcasts or guest suggestions for guests. And in the meantime, like subscribe, share, comment, all that kind of good stuff. Go down below, give a five-star review and I will see you next time. Very soon to be announcing the Tomorrow’s Leader book published a publication date and release date. And also my TED talk will be released very soon. So stay tuned. Thanks for joining everybody. Take care.
John (Closing): Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader. For suggestions, or inquiries, about having me at your next event, or personal coaching, reach me at john@lauritogroup.com Once again, that’s john@lauritogroup.com. Thanks! Lead on!
