The busy fool
Never confuse movement with action - Ernest Hemmingway
Where it may be wholly intolerable to begin an article with a quote from a famous novelist in hope I have disguised myself as more cultured than I really am, this really will form the backbone of what I am talking about today.
These last two weeks in Belfast, there seems to have been a floodgate opened in terms of conferences and networking opportunities. It is great to be out again, face-to-face, with the spectre of 2020 all but exorcised from the public consciousness. But, from days on my feet with a Fitbit nearly caught on fire, and countless conversations with existing and potential customers from an almost laughably diverse range of sectors there are a few things I have learned.
There are many busy fools
If one thing came out of the lockdown and pandemic, it was that there were a lot of companies that realised their infrastructure was not up to the challenge. They adapted, quickly. Adapting quickly is rarely ideal, necessity rarely drives efficiency, but needs must. Once the new infrastructure was in place they all went home and learned how to make the new normal work for them, with new processes and procedures scrambled and adapted to get through.
Now, back at their offices, or at least in part, there is a strange conundrum. The old ways seem a little alien, and intensive, and the new ways were a bit of a Hodge podge, so what do we do now?
I have spoken to so many busy people who in a lot of ways spinning their wheels. They see the value in modernising, as they did with online meetings, and cloud phone systems, but have absolutely no idea about their day-to-day, and leveraging automation tools and platforms to reduce the man-hour burden in simple administrative tasks. It is a strange time in recruitment and manpower is not the guaranteed currency it used to be.
It is an employees market
As if to provide a perfect storm, at the minute, there are so many people in my atmosphere moving on, making a change, and we can all read around the skills shortage the wider UK is currently facing. I think this was a slight inevitability post lockdown and post-Brexit, the stresses that have been put on the collective were always going to make people adopt the mantra that a change is as good as a rest.
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That being said, inevitability shouldn’t mean businesses don't do what they can to minimise the damage. A forward-thinking workspace will always look more attractive. Fun fact: A fruit bowl is no longer considered progressive. If you think it is, read this article:
This has to be a top to tail action, from the way staff interact with customers and processes to the way internally they are valued and developed. Going back to my previous point, are your staff busy or are they taking action??
Busy people are often frustrated, and people taking action are inspired.
Treading water eventually leads to drowning
Mostly from Digital DNA but also from a few chance meetings, I have been simply bowled over by the innovation in the Belfast tech sector, everything you could conceive of for every conceivable industry seems to have a fully fledged innovation to drive business. All this is out there available now, and I get the distinct impression that the idea of ‘this is how we have always done it’ is running out of road as a business practice.
There are those getting ahead, incrementally every day, whether that is reducing costs, or gaining output, little by little, the efficiency is there. The customer experience is getting better, little by little. Cost controls are getting utilised, little by little. It is these companies that are going to grow, as others struggle with demands on manpower, costs, and productivity.
Don’t be one of those people. Get involved in the local market and you will be amazed at some of the ways you can lighten the load, increase your output, and drive things forward.
Thankfully, that is a slight break in the conferences and expos for a few weeks, but it is great to see the buzz back in the city and into business conversations really gaining pace again.