We are all challenged, every day, with prioritising our precious time, setting goals, measuring returns and basically being efficient and effective.
These are great intentions, but often we are deluged with opportunities, distractions and noise, that means we take our eye off the ball and at the end of the day we become frustrated that we haven’t quite delivered as much value for ourselves and our businesses as we might have.
So try The Skyscraper Model
The essence of the model is that we prioritise all of our projects and all of our day to day activities by spending appropriate resources, time and attention on the things that will deliver most value and profit to us.
The concept is quite simple. By focusing most on what delivers the highest return on investment of time, people and budget, we can continually ensure that we simply couldn’t have done any more.
Step 1. On Post-It Notes list out each and every project, campaign or activity that you are or could be doing.
Step 2. On each Post-It Note add a measurable value that this activity brings to you or your business. This might be financial profit, a specific number of increased customers etc. Make it a smart value.
Step 3. Line up the Notes in a horizontal line from ‘highest value’ on the left to ‘lowest value’ on the right. There are no equals, so decide upon the most important of the two, if there are activities that appear to add a similar level of value.
Step 4. We all have 100% of time and resource available to allocate, so now, based upon the relative value of each of the Notes, allocate a proportionate amount of time and resource to each one. For example in the example graph shown, the highest value activity, the left most Skyscraper (the highest on the vertical profit/value axis) is the broadest Skyscraper (takes up the most width on the time/resource horizontal axis).
Step 5. Create a graph similar to the example shown and include all of your activities and ensure that you are allocating time and resource for each activity relative to the value it is creating.
As you play with this Model and find priorities changing in your business and changing values that certain activities provide, you can adapt and tune the graph so that it serves as a day to day reminder to you and your colleagues of where most attention should be focused. If you find yourself spending too much resource on activities further down the priority list then you can adjust accordingly or maybe question why and change the resource level available.
Prioritising your working world using theories such as The Skyscraper Model can increase profitability of your business without additional sales, increasing prices or introducing new products. Unlock the hidden profits inside your business by working smarter, prioritising and adding increased efficiencies.
For assistance in setting up your Skyscraper, do get in touch.