Economy of Effort
Focus on high impact outcomes and streamline or automate processes. You get the greatest economy within your core competencies.
Economy of Effort is using the minimum resources necessary to achieve a specific objective. This principle balances competing requirements, where economising employment of resources in one place, enables alternate force concentration options It involves making the most of available resources and avoiding unnecessary expenditure of time, energy, and resources (human, financial, relationships, etc.).
You can apply the principle of Economy of Effort in several ways such as:
Focusing on high impact outcomes. Often the effort for small impact is similar to the effort for big impact; think fewer, bigger, better. While this doesn’t mean always chasing the biggest fish in the pond, high impact outcomes can be chased by partnering with businesses to achieve outcomes that are out of scope and scale to what can be achieved alone. It will also create processes that are scalable and repeatable.
Automating and streamlining. With the advent of AI, many repetitive systems can be automated. For those that can’t be automated, batching similar activities (meetings, emails, invoicing, etc.) allows a mindset without interruptions to efficiently complete a significant amount of work.
Core competencies. You achieve disproportionate results within your core competencies. Just as an arborist will remove trees faster than a plumber, focusing effort on core competencies will enable you to commit fewer resources (time / money) to achieve specific objectives.
Niche marketing. As above, by identifying your niche and concentrating their marketing efforts on that specific target audience, you can tailor your marketing messages and create more effective campaigns that resonate with your target audience, without excluding those who perceive themselves to be part of the niche.
Through automation and streamlining, focusing on your core competencies while partnering with those with complementary strengths, and thinking fewer, bigger, better, a sports club will minimise the resources it commits to each project enabling it to commit resources elsewhere or retain a commander’s reserve.
“Purposeful living calls for elegant efficiency and economy of effort-expanding the minimum time and energy necessary to achieve desired goals.”Dan Millman