What will you do with all that valuable “freed-up” time?

Image prompt: a lightbulb with a clock, watercolour

I notice more and more innovation efforts shift to process improvement. Dedicated projects are set up to fix friction and frustrations. The goal is to reduce time and effort to get the job done by streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks and eliminating efficiencies etc. This leads to freeing up valuable time.

But then what? How will you redistribute the value you unlocked?

Too often this it not approached systemically.

End-scene of “Finding Nemo”

It reminds me of the end scene of finding Nemo: the fish unleashed all their innovation potential and (spoiler alert) make it from the aquarium to the ocean. As they float in their plastic bags, Bloat asks:
Now what?

The biggest risk of not approaching this systemically is only having a short term gain before Parkinsons law sets in:
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

This means, without articulating what this valuable freed-up time should be spent on (and having the right support system for this in place) existing tasks will likely balloon and inefficiencies will creep back in.

So: define the alternative. These are my suggestions:

• Innovate: identify opportunities and work on validating ideas (that go beyond just improving your existing processes)

• Professional development: brush up on skills that support creative problem-solving and data-driven decision making

• Strategic planning sessions: identify opportunity areas, define your ideal innovation portfolio, set a direction for innovation initiatives