The (Sometimes) Misplaced Focus on Efficiency

As a kid, I remember watching my dad write business articles and books at the dining room table. His task was made more difficult by us kids constantly interrupting him. It may not have been an efficient use of his time, but it was a great way to keep conversations going and nurture relationships. That was his primary goal and he was willing to be inefficient with his writing to foster that goal.

We often hear the phrase “work smarter, not harder”. I am certainly guilty of striving for efficiency with text expanders, macros and various other tools. Efficiency is so important that the US Department of Labor has the Office of Productivity and Technology tracking this every quarter.

But I believe this phrase has been misinterpreted to mean that efficiency should take precedence over any other goal. Efficiency should certainly be taken into consideration, but it should not be the main focus. The focus should be on the main goal: getting the main job done well.

Take Trader Joe’s, for example. Trader Joe’s deliberately stocks the shelves during the hours of the day when customers are in the store vs early in the mornings or late evenings. This is not the most efficient way to stock shelves, but it is a great way to keep customers engaged, help them find items and increase sales.

Companies like Superhuman and Future strongly push an onboarding call before customers are allowed into the product. This is expensive, introduces friction to the onboarding flow but is net positive to their goal of ensuring their customers are successful over the long term ... which also increases their customer's lifetime value (LTV).

Do you have other examples of things that are inefficient but are still the right thing for the customer and the business? I would love to hear about them in the comments.