Julian’s Business Tips: Is Your Business Like My Ankle?
As some of you know, I do a bit of running and, earlier this year, I had a problem with a sore ankle.
Now I did A level biology, so Dr Google and I decided I had tendonitis and put together a sensible treatment plan. But the pain never went away completely. I was confident it was tendonitis, so why wasn’t the treatment working?
Later, a conversation with a professional revealed that the tendonitis was actually caused by my sitting down all the time!
Basically, sitting down a lot meant my bum muscles (glutes) had stretched, and my thigh muscles (hamstrings) had tightened. When running longer distances, my glutes got tired, and when the ever-adaptable body asked the hamstrings to help out, they pulled the tendons in the ankle more than they should, causing the tendonitis!
If you spot a symptom in your business – do you jump straight in with an amateur diagnosis and an ice pack, or do you look at the whole process to try and find the root cause of the problem?
Let me give you an example: if your customers are experiencing late deliveries – is that Transport’s failing? Well it may be – or perhaps inefficient Production is taking too long to make the goods? Or does Procurement need to secure better lead times from suppliers? Or maybe Sales should stop taking orders with unrealistic lead times? Or maybe a combination of small inefficiencies that come together to create the original issue?
I stopped my ankle problem re-occurring by improving the strength of my glutes, and using stretches to help my hamstrings. What do you need to do to keep your business running easily?
Next time you ‘pick up an injury’ in your business, stop it happening again by thinking about my bum – and finding the part(s) of the process that are really initiating the pain!
