“We should work on our process, not the outcome of our process.”-(W. Edwards deming)
McDonald’s has 36,525 restaurants around the globe. they’re found in 118 countries and serve 68 million customers each day. That’s around one percent of world’s population, every single day. Mind blowing.
McDonald’s employs over half a million people, most of whom, as you probably know, are perhaps acne-ridden high school kids.
But here is the most amazing part: Despite the massive scale & complexity of this multinational corporation, their product and service is consistent.
I could go to a McDonald’s store in the United States, then the United Kingdom, and then in Australia, everything would be the same. I’d get the same food. I’d get the same service. The store would look the same. Everything.
Even more staggering is that most McDonald’s employees are in fact failing high school students.
how’s it that McDonald’s, in all its 36,525 stores, is perfectly consistent – especially when its employees are mostly incompetent?
Here’s how: McDonald’s has a secret. they’re perhaps the best in the world at creating systems. They break down all aspects of the business into their simplest components. They simply reduce their entire business to no more than a collection of little steps. They make these small steps so simple that a bunch of failing high school kid can actually run the business. Literally.
McDonald’s builds a simple, step by step process. They then just turn it over to their employees. The result of this system is that you get the exact same experience no matter what McDonald’s store you go to an extraordinarily and a really impressive feat considering they hire some of the least skilled workers in the world.
So let’s take a look at what the “McDonald’s system” can teach us about time management.
The General & the Troops
Most people work long and hard, but fail to work smart. The biggest hurdle to working smart is indecision and lack of direction. this’s because we humans have two modes of work: Strategizing and doing. We plan and we act.
The problem is that we often try to do both of these things at the same time. One minute we’re in “go mode,” the next minute we’re in “strategy mode.” This not only slows us down and makes us highly inefficient, but it leads to multitasking & decision fatigue.
Multitasking also causes a 40 percent drop in efficiency. Decision fatigue depletes one’s willpower. Decision fatigue also, as its name suggests, simply reduces the quality of subsequent decisions.
So what’s the solution?
This dilemma can be simply resolved by dedicating a block of time to being in “strategy mode.” This frees up the rest of one’s time for being in “go mode.” This clear division also eliminates the need for multitasking. It also quickly extinguishes the decision fatigue that saps at one’s willpower and reduces the quality of one’s work.
The effectiveness of an army would be severely limited if men were required to fill both the role of the general and the infantry.
The quality of an essay would be severely limited if one couldn’t draw up an outline.
The insight offered by an academic paper would be severely limited were it not researched and planned.
The potential success of a business would also be severely limited if no business plan were to be produced.
The ability of a film to engage and captivate audiences would be severely limited if the director had no script. The safety of passenger jets would also be severely limited if pilots never had takeoff checklists.
The utility of an airplane as a method of transport would also be severely limited were there no flight plans.
It’s clear, isn’t it? “Strategy mode” and “go mode” must be disentangled from one another. One cannot direct a film without already having a script. One cannot write an effective academic paper without prior research and planning. One cannot be both general and soldier.
To maximize efficiency, one must simply set aside a block of time dedicated to being the general-“strategy mode.” Then one can return to the battlefield as a soldier – “go mode” – free of strategy-related worries.
By disentangling these two roles, one can perhaps mindlessly power through stacks of complex work without so much as a single thought. this’s efficiency at its best. It’s the beauty of working smart.
As success coach Brian Tracy said, “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent Return on Energy!”
You can’t be both CEO and employee at the same time. You can’t be both general and soldier at the same time. Separate the two roles and your efficiency will go through the roof. You must work smart.
Utilizing the Process
The first step to utilizing the “McDonald’s system” is to set aside one day each week for intense planning. you’ll spend this time planning the week or so.
Although it might first seem rather extreme to be spending this much time on planning, remember that the more detail that goes into planning, the less time you’ll end up wasting during the week. As Brian Tracy said in the aforementioned quote, “Every minute you actually spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution.” Sounds like a good deal to me.
Furthermore, you’ll eventually become faster. You’ll then end up being able to plan the next week in a single afternoon (or evening) at the end of the weekend.
Keep in mind that it’s important to not include any more than five major goals or projects.
Now, the second step is to go ahead and break these goals into smaller tasks – sub-projects.
For the third step, make sure to go into “McDonald’s level” detail on your sub-projects. Make it so simple that an ance-ridden failing high school kid could do it. You want to make it so that you don’t have to think about what it’s that you’re doing. You can just go, go, go without needing to stop and think too much. You want to work with machine-like efficiency.
The fourth step is to determine how long each task will take and assign time frames. It might take an entire day, half a day, or a quarter of a day. Be a little conservative. It’s better to have a little time left over than to be forced to completely abandon your plan.
Finally, the fifth step is to print your plan out and stick it to your desk. This plan is to you what a map is to a sailor. With this plan, you’ll be free to focus exclusively on taking action-being in “go mode”-for the next week or so. Also no more worrying about what the next step is or constantly switching between “strategy mode” and “go mode.”
By embracing the “McDonald’s system” and disentangling the roles of general and soldier, you eliminate decision fatigue, boost energy levels, skyrocket your efficiency.
The creation of such a roadmap by laying out the process – the little steps – enables clockwork-like productivity. Also just like in a mechanical clock, all the little parts work together to create a perfectly predictable outcome.
Process vs Outcome
There two ways one can operate:
1. Just focus on the outcome.
2. Just focus on the process.
As you likely know, a lot of people focus exclusively on the outcome. This can be handy in “strategy mode,” however, if it simply persists throughout other stages of work-such as “go mode”-this obsessive focus on the outcome can, ironically, perhaps become detrimental to the outcome.
Measuring yourself against short-term results is a terrible strategy. The key to effective time management and the consequent jaw-dropping productivity is to determine the actions that lead to the long-term results you desire.
Focus on the process, not the outcome. you’ve zero control over the outcome. What you do have control over, however, is the process. Adjust the process and the results you’re getting will change accordingly. Just focusing on the outcome won’t move you any nearer to that which you’re striving for.
