Doing More with Less...

Everywhere you go these days, the talk is about getting more results with fewer resources.  In my field of public higher education, we are seeing massive budget cuts, yet the need for our classes is growing faster than ever.  We need to find ways of educating ever more students with less and less funding.

Working people in general have been facing this challenge for years.  As wages have stagnated, costs have risen.  Spending more dollars and getting less for them is a familiar picture to many households.

So what can you do?  As this article from The Economist discusses, creative uses of technology have been saving us, and will continue to do so.  Whether its smart residential electric meters, or smart phones, technology has allowed productivity to soar even with constricted resources.

If you're a business owner, you need to look at your technology platforms, and see how they can solve your problems.  The solution doesn't need to be complex or expensive either.  A client of mine is drowning in paperwork, and was convinced that until he invested in expensive case management software, he couldn't avoid it.  But I showed him how a simple design in Microsoft Excel, a program he already owned, could save hours with far lower costs.

If you rely on a paycheck, you already know how much pressure you're under to get more done.  Marc Lesser's book and practice focus on simplifying what you do to accomplish more. 

Whatever your circumstance, what's important to realize is that you can apply proven techniques to create positive growth and change.  There's always some thing, small or large, that can be improved.  You just have to have an open mind about where to find it.