This week I took a Jenga tower to a networking meeting. There I was, standing at the front of the room with a pile of wooden blocks, wondering whether I'd completely lost the plot π
As I built the tower, I explained that each block represented something in a business. Customers, employees, systems, processes, communication, marketing, finance... all the things that help a business grow and keep moving forward.
Then I started removing blocks.
What surprised me wasn't what happened next.
It was what didn't happen.
Nobody interrupted.
Nobody challenged the analogy.
Instead, there were lots of nods.
A few smiles.
And quite a few of those little "ahhh..." moments that tell you someone has just connected the dots in their own head.
Nobody needed me to explain where the gaps might be. They could already see them.
The process they've been meaning to review for six months.
The spreadsheet that somehow became critical to the business.
The customer onboarding process that's grown organically over time.
The way information gets passed between people.
The things that aren't broken... but aren't quite as smooth as they could be either.
It got me thinking about how easy it is to stop seeing the gaps in our own businesses. Not because we're ignoring them.
Usually because we're busy. We're serving customers, managing teams, dealing with suppliers, trying to grow the business and keeping all the plates spinning.
So we adapt.
We create workarounds.
We find ways of making things work.
And before we know it, we've started accepting things that probably deserve another look.
That's one of the reasons I spend so much time looking at businesses through the eyes of customers and employees.
Not because I'm looking for problems.
I'm usually looking for opportunities.
Opportunities to make life easier.
Opportunities to make things clearer.
Opportunities to remove frustration before it becomes a bigger issue.
Because prevention is nearly always better than cure.
It's much easier to improve onboarding before customers become frustrated than it is to win them back once they've left.
It's much easier to strengthen communication before misunderstandings start causing problems.
It's much easier to review a process before the business doubles in size than it is to untangle it afterwards.
One of the conversations I've been having recently has been with a business that's growing quickly. They're investing in systems, recruiting, improving the way different departments work together and putting plans in place for the future.
All sensible things to do.
But what struck me was that the real conversation wasn't about systems or processes.
It was about making sure the foundations underneath the business are strong enough for where they want to get to, next.
Because growth has a habit of exposing things we never noticed before.
If you're wondering where to start, here are a few simple places to look:
ππ» Where are customers having to chase you for information?
ππ» Where are employees creating workarounds because "that's just how we've always done it"?
ππ» If you doubled in size next year, what would come under pressure first?
ππ» If a key employee went on holiday tomorrow, what knowledge would disappear with them?
ππ» Where are customers or employees getting frustrated, even if nobody is actively complaining?
You don't need to fix everything.
You don't need to rebuild the tower.
You just need to identify the next block that needs strengthening.
Because the businesses that scale successfully aren't usually the ones that react fastest when something breaks.
They're the ones that spot potential problems early and do something about them before they become problems at all.
So if I was leaving you with one thing to think about this week, it would be this: What have you started accepting in your business simply because it's become normal?
Because that might just be the next block worth strengthening π.
And if you need some advice, get in touch!
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