Time as a unit of measurement (but not the way you think)

A recent comment from a CEO client of mine caught my attention and I have been thinking about it since. He said to me, "Your help has saved me 18 to 24 months that it would have taken me to get to this place without you. I had never heard anyone express time as a unit of measurement quite like that. But the more I thought about it the more it made sense.

I have often challenged organizations not just to tweak what they do but to actively look for the game changers that would allow them to take a giant step forward. Game changers are strategic decisions, ways of doing things and paradigm shifts that allow you to take a quantum leap in the direction you want to go. Essentially they are helping you get to your destination far faster than you would otherwise. You are, as my CEO client said, shaving off months or years that it would have taken you to get to your destination otherwise.

In a world where time is our most precious commodity that makes perfect sense. Why twiddle and tweak when we might be able to find solutions that propel us forward quickly. Not because we are that much better but because we are thinking that much smarter. Ordinary organizations seeing far greater results simply because we are doing what we do in a smarter way. This is not about peddling faster with the same methodology. It is about changing the methodology in order to get further faster.

This is why we hire consultants! They are not smarter than we are. But looking at your processes and methodologies from the outside give them a perspective that you don't have. Their solutions are not revolutionary except they may shave months or years off of the time to reach your desired outcome. That is revolutionary - not the methodology itself.

I tell the story of how this happened in the organization I led in the past in the blog Looking away from the lamppost.  We didn't get smarter but we did change the paradigm which changed everything.

What holds us back? The methodologies that we are used to and which hold our minds hostage. What we are used to keeps us from discovering innovation - the game changers. Try this exercise. Ask yourself the question: "Where do I want my organization to be in five years?" Then ask, "If I were designing it today, how would I organize to get there on time or earlier?" "What could I change to speed up the process?" Don't twiddle and tweak but look at changing your methodology to achieve a faster and perhaps even a better result. Think of time saved as your unit of measurement. How much time can you save in the journey so you get further faster?