I LOVE EASY WINS. Fulfilling your purpose does take effort. However, this does not mean that every step should be difficult.

As a leadership, business, and ministry consultant, I have discovered that people tend not to notice the “low-hanging” fruit or “easy-wins” that they can leverage and get some noticeable results.  Why is this so?

Listen, I believe in working hard, “grinning and bearing it,” and other adjectives that may create the picture of “blood, sweat, and tears,” but I also believe in working smarter, not only harder. 

In business, this tends to be an efficiency vs. effectiveness issue. There are two ways businesses get results i.e. effectively or efficiently. How these two terms are defined depends on how resources are used to accomplish the intended results. Let me use a production illustration as an example.

If you are in the business of making cars, and you set out on making a car that can accelerate at a high rate of speed, say going from 0-60 mph in 6 seconds. When testing the car, you realize the intended targeted speed of 0-60 mph is achieved in 6 seconds; however, you also notice that the car burns more fuel than intended.  You have effectively met your acceleration goal, but it came at cost of poor fuel efficiency. See the difference between effectiveness vs. efficiency yet?

Or, you are a ministry leader who is responsible for guest follow-up. You only have 10 volunteers on your team, but you average 50 guests every time there is a meeting but the 10 volunteers that you have, while they are accomplishing the goal of 100% guest follow-up (effective), they are feeling burned out because realistically, you need a volunteer force of 20 people to have optimal coverage (efficiency)

Here is another example, nowadays work/life balance has become a big topic in the work world. The big question is how can one be their best at both work and outside of work?  If you are a corporate executive that is always facing a time crunch in getting a project completed, closing a deal, solving a big problem, etc., sometimes the temptation to sacrifice time with family versus completing the project becomes very real. 

The fact is that something always gives.  You solve the problem at work (effectiveness), but you missed several date nights with your spouse (an efficiency problem).  You spend late nights at work trying to meet the deadline, but you get it done (effective); however, you neglected time for the gym that would keep you healthy to deal with work pressure (an efficiency problem).

The reality is, regardless of the sphere of life we find ourselves in, we will always have the efficient vs. effective challenge. But the phrase “just get her done” will not sustain you in the long run.  So, what do you do?

Identify low-hanging fruit i.e. things that you can change or tweak that will take you the extra mile, but not at the cost of being efficient.

Steps to identify “low hanging” fruit:

1. Come up for air: Sometimes we can be so immersed in our situation, that we don’t stop and become intentional to see what’s going on.
   
2. Assess your system: I am big on systems theory. Believe it or not, there is a system for everything in life. The human body is a system. Your car runs because of the various systems that are interacting to cause mobility. Your organization is a system that contains people, impacted by strategy, structure, and processes. If you circumvent or over-extended any part in the system, you will see the effects of an inefficient system in the long run.
   
3. Locate the easy win: The “easy win” can be found by asking yourself, “what is costing you the most in your system?” It is easy to get overwhelmed with the entire system and perceive everything as the problem. Stop right there. Change your focus and only pick one or two specific things that you can change incrementally. Listen, the challenge did not occur overnight, so be realistic and patient.
   
4. Execute, execute, execute! Listen many plans fail because of lack of implementation. Shake the perfectionism syndrome. It is a delay tactic that is not based on reality. You have identified where you can get an “easy win,” now it’s time to experiment to see what the results are.
   
5. Perform an After Action Review: I was an Army Chaplain candidate for several years. What I love about the Army is that embedded in its culture is organizational learning. The learning system is designed in such way that even failure has its teachable moments. Here is a great resource from the Wharton University of Pennsylvania on the how to perform an After Action Review.
   
6. Repeat the Steps 1 through 5 until the desired outcome is achieved.

What are some “low-hanging” fruit that you see that you plan on going after in 2022, whether in your life, business, or ministry?