I talked earlier in the week about when to use systems thinking in business. One of the outcomes you can achieve by paying systems thinking is to increase profits. I want to dive deeper into that today. Profits is a word that is used in different ways, so let’s start by defining profit. Profit is
After folks start to learn the ins and outs of systems thinking, one of the next questions asked is “When can I use systems thinking in my business?” Before I get into the answer, let’s do a quick recap of what systems thinking is and what a system is. Systems Thinking is using a “systems”
This week we’re looking at the Framework for Systems Thinking in Business. I want to highlight the four most important systems for any business to have. As you might have heard me say before, these systems are in every business, no matter what industry or what size. If you don’t have these systems, then you
When I first started working in the corporate space as a sales engineer, I realized quickly that I would need a common way to look at very different businesses. As a sales engineer, it was my job to go in and close deals while laying the technical foundation for the project management work that followed.
Last week we talked about the key attributes that make up your core activities. Remember, your core activities are the main things you do in your business and the key attributes are the inputs, process steps, outputs, desired outcomes, and metrics of each core activity. Inputs are the things that go into your process steps.
At this point, you should be thinking about your business in terms of core activities (systems) that your business performs to build and deliver valuable products and services to your Customers. For a refresher on thinking about the core activities of your business, read our article here. The next important piece of optimizing your business
One of the things I see many entrepreneurs struggling with is how to fix or improve the outcomes from their business. The main reason why I see this happening is because entrepreneurs think of their business as one thing. In reality, every business is a collection of smaller components that make up the business. It’s
I went to my mother-in-law’s cabin this weekend to help her chop and move some wood. She had to take down a large tree recently that was about 3 feet in diameter and 70 feet tall. The tree was cut up into discs about a foot thick. Along with a few others, I spent eight
Before I started focusing on optimizing for outcomes, I had started a YouTube channel producing how-to videos related to automation and efficiency improvements in business. As I shifted my focus, the time needed to produce the videos was consumed by other activities. Having gotten many things in order in the last couple of months I
When working with different businesses, I’ve seen a lot of confusion around the difference between outcomes and outputs. The short answer to the question, “is there a difference that matters?” is that yes, there is a big difference, and if you don’t get it right, you risk wasting time focusing on the wrong things when