Diligent employees are great, they tend to be at the top of our employee wish list. Oh how we long for self sufficient employees… finding them is like winning corporate lotto. They are the backbones of our businesses and on paper what’s not to like? They are autonomous, take responsibility, get what they are supposed to do done and adhere to our systems.
Yet today our systems are outdated, often before we even finish testing them, let alone roll them out through our entire companies.
The digital age has changed everything, we are living through a revolution. History books tell us of the enormous changes the industrial revolution caused and will tell of the same when looking back on this our digital revolution.
This revolution means that we need new systems better suited to our new reality. We require more flexible thinking, faster responses and ever evolving approaches. Which is where the problem starts with too many diligent employees in our ranks. The problem is that they tend not to question, agitate or innovate. They do exactly as they should, they follow systems and protocols. But therein lies the problem… they follow them… not challenge them.
What we need is people who will constantly re-evaluate. rethink and adapt our systems to the modern world of business. People who will look for a different way. This is where the lazy employee becomes valuable. It is the lazy employee who will look for an easier way, who will actively seek out the shortcut. They have a minimum effort, maximum result mindset. Smart and lazy is a powerful combination. Our systems improve when clever people are lazy because superfluous steps are deleted. Technology itself is driven by smart and lazy people. People who thought what if I did not have to get a stamp, write out an address, walk to the post box wondered ‘can I make a letter electronic?’…. hello email. Lazy employees reinvent systems and change our world.
This is the genius of the ‘lazy’ employee.
DAN GREGORY & KIERAN FLANAGAN
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