Is your Organization in BUSINESS or BUSYNESS?

By Michael O' Adetu

The business environment is becoming more competitive especially in this era of the digital age. Organizations that must gain, retain, and sustain competitive advantage must be agile (highly responsive to change and proactive in terms of innovation). Unlike decades ago, the reality of the fourth industrial revolution not only demands that organizations that want to remain ahead of competition must be able to use technology as leverage and take advantage of the 21st-century knowledge circulation to achieve more as quickly as possible. We are already in a microwave world where consumers are becoming less patient thereby pushing the need for continuous innovation in technology, product development, services, and speeding up the pace at which work is being carried out in a typical organization. The sad part is organizations that fail to recognize this massive change already going on will be pushed out of the market or left behind due to the consumers decamping to service providers who understand the importance of meeting consumer needs as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, some organizations that might recognize this change are fast to respond but are quickly pushed from being in BUSINESS to BUSYNESS. The fast pace environment that enforces the need for change means that organizations need to remain awake in using the cutting edge of 21st-century technology to provide services or product that is much more better, faster and cheaper- BUSINESS in this context is solution-driven and highly customer-focused;  BUSYNESS, on the other hand, is simply activities driven. Organizations that are in business constantly take out time to understand the changes in their market and proactive enough by realigning resources to take advantage of the opportunities that come with such changes. In realigning their resources (either human, finance, technology, or knowledge), they ensure that all resources involved are carefully focused to achieve the desired outcome- which is to remain in business by providing a much better, faster and cheaper services or product. Sadly, the human element is one of the most difficult resources to manage as this element of the resources possesses the ability to control other elements.

The mistake most organizations make is that they have been able to successfully adjust resources such as finance and technology that has become business focus but neglect the need to ensure that the most important resource which is ‘humans’ requires ongoing adjustment to ensure that it remains business focus rather than activity driven. That being said, it is important for executives to understand why activities within an organization gear towards busyness rather than a business. Here are some of the reasons I have been able to come up with

Poor Planning and Communication

 Not having a plan in place that shows how the organization will ensure that everything within the organization (both human and non-human elements) is not just maximized to operate at full capacity but operate to focus on achieving the desired results that will contribute to helping the organization remain in business. Communication is important and most of the time, organizations fail in their business activities due to poor or lack of communication. It is absolutely crucial not just to have a plan in place but to ensure that the plan is carefully communicated using the most effective format through the right channel. To remain in business and gain more competitive advantage, you will need a good plan that is well communicated to the employees who will be implementing such a plan.

Lack of Skills

People within the organization can become busy without achieving tangible results. There is really nothing impressive about a busy office environment or employees when there is no result to show for it. Some employees might even spend more time than needed to complete a simple task because of a lack of skills needed to get the job done. In your organization, you should ensure that people who have been assigned to carry out specific task possesses the necessary skills to get the task done in order to make sure no time is being wasted in the process.

Lack of Training

Not having the necessary training is another reason many organizations are more activity driven than result-driven. So they are more in busyness than business. Empower your employees by training them. When employees know how to get the job done, they will spend less time on tasks.

Lack of Resources

There is nothing as frustrating for a skillful worker not to have the necessary tools needed to get the job done. This can also affect the level of motivation. Motivating an employee who is not motivated can be one of the hardest tasks to do. Trust is important when it comes to the employee-employer relationship.

Organization Culture

Sometimes, organizations might have the right people and tools needed to get the job done yet end up being in busyness rather than a business. The dominant culture at work in an organization can influence how serious people working within the organization handle task given to them. Organizations must encourage hard work, teamwork, and freedom to ask for help when needed. In doing this, the top management will have to take the lead role by first practicing the things they want other people working in the organization to do. Changing the culture of an organization will not happen overnight- It takes constant change reinforcement to correct unhealthy organization culture. People resist change especially one that threatens already established practices. If you have to change the culture within your organization, do not expect this to happen overnight- be patient enough to go through the process.

Poor Delegation

Some people working in an organization just will not want to delegate responsibility and will want to do everything by themselves. Such people are usually not team players and engage in such behavior for several reasons which could be that they are scared of asking for help or want to take all the credit for doing a wonderful job. Regardless of what the reason(s) might be, the organization must discourage such acts as that will not only lead to delay in achieving tasks but will increase stress level and deny other people in the organization to grow.

Procrastination and Poor Priority

Doing the right thing at the right time is one of the secrets to many successful organizations. We have seen this at work in Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Walmart, and many more. Timing is important in business. To ensure that your organization does not end up in busyness, the need for discouraging procrastination and clearly communicating the priority focus of the organization is important. Everybody within the organization should be clear of what the business wants to achieve and their roles in helping the organization achieve this goal. Encourage a culture that allows employees not to take up too many tasks that will lead to procrastination. Most of the time, tasks left undone will not just affect the organization financially but can create a toxic culture that can be hard to undo.

There are other reasons why organizations find themselves in busyness instead of business but the few points made here can help you kick start the process. The biggest setback for most organizations is not really lack of resources; rather it is having resources but not being able to deploy them in an effective and efficient manner to help the organization gain competitive advantage. So let your organization focus remains on doing business (providing better, faster, and cheaper services/product) and not busyness (engaging daily in activities that yield or add zero value to the customers).

I hope you find this useful. I will be happy to read your comment below. Thank you

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