April 30, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode, we explore how small, intentional improvements—not sweeping changes—drive real progress in biopharma operations. The discussion highlights a common challenge: the disconnect between strategy and execution, often due to underutilized middle management.
You'll learn a simple framework for creating meaningful change: start within your sphere of influence, map key inputs and outputs, and implement solutions that reduce effort while increasing visibility. Small wins in project management can build momentum, leading to better accountability, decision-making, and resource allocation.
The conversation also covers the importance of tools and training—many organizations have powerful software but lack the support to maximize its potential. The takeaway? Improve your own workflows first to build credibility before driving broader change.
Ready to assess your organization’s efficiency? Connect with us at leanbydesign@sigmalabconsulting.com to uncover high-impact improvement opportunities. 🚀
Learn more about us by visiting: https://sigmalabconsulting.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Lean by
Design podcast.
I'm your host, oscar Gonzalez,alongside my co-host and partner
, lawrence Wong, and we areapproaching I guess we're going
to call this season two.
It's been a little bit sincewe've been.
We're now recording here thisis March 6th and it's been a
little bit of time since we'vebeen able to get on the
(00:21):
microphones, primarily due to alot of the work that's been
going on working with clients,finding new avenues to continue
reaching our client base andmaking sure that we're
delivering optimal solutions forfolks.
To stop working so hard.
Lawrence, you want to addanything there?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, we've been doing a lot of, I would say,
business development, but we'realso just rebranding some stuff
through LinkedIn, also ourwebsite, and then just making
sure that content and what yousee when you try to reach out to
us, everything aligns.
And I think, because we'veevolved so much since I don't
(01:03):
know when did we start this Twoyears ago that, like, everything
has slowly, slowly changed andif you don't update those things
, it becomes a loss intranslation sometimes if you're
reaching out to us in differentformats.
So, yeah, it's just been, Ithink, doing a lot of work
internally but also just tryingto make sure that we're reaching
(01:23):
the people that are in need ofthe value that we're trying to
provide to the industry.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I think that's such a great point In the.
For those that have notlistened to us before, thank you
for joining us.
We've seen that our previousepisodes have continued to drive
value, continue to drivelisteners and received a lot of
messages coming back to us toparticipate and be part of our
(01:51):
podcast.
So we're excited to beginreaching out to those folks as
we're starting to schedule thisnext year of podcasting and
really bringing you guys guestsand topics that are things that
you care about and just seeinghow are people conducting
operational efficiency?
How are people fixing things intheir workplace?
(02:11):
Where do they start?
We're going to talk a littlebit about that today, but I
think what Lawrence reallyLawrence, I think what you
alluded to, which is reallyimportant is that as
organizations are growing,there's an evolution.
There's an evolution in how youperceive yourself, how others
perceive your organization, andthere's an evolution to really
(02:33):
how we recognize where the valueis and how we convey that
messaging.
So it's really important and Ithink you can say you know you
can add this perspective as well, lawrence is that I want to
make sure that we're connectingeverything together, from the
assessments that we've createdto content on our LinkedIn, of
(03:07):
developing a book to helpsupport those that are looking
for ways to start withoperational efficiency or
organizational efficiency andproductivity, really in the
biopharma space.
So there's all these littlepieces and tools that we've been
developing and, as we work withorganizations, that niche, that
direction continues to becomemore and more focused so that we
(03:29):
can make sure that we're nowyou know, now we're in March
already.
(03:52):
I just stepped outside.
It's about 50 degrees outside,which I don't think we've seen
that since October probably.
And for those that don't know,we're just out of the Boston
area, so right in the NewEngland area, no stranger to
inches and feet worth of snow.
So a lot of that has started tomelt away, so I'm happy for
(04:13):
that.
I'm ready to get outside of thehouse.
I've been in here for quite abit of the last couple of months
Seasonally depressed.
Man, that sun stayed away for awhile and that cold stuck around
.
So I'm really excited to getout there and not only that, but
have engagements and networkingwhere we can have coffee and
meet with folks you know outsideand just enjoy some vitamin D.
(04:37):
There's been a steady evolutionto the work we've done and as
(05:07):
we continue to work, we alsocontinue to learn.
That is something that I thinkthat we hold very true to the
values of working with Sigma LabConsulting as being co-founders
and bringing new knowledge topeople that you know.
Hey, we're going through, youknow, books and podcasts and
articles and white papers tobring you the newest information
, to bring you the newest lineof thinking, because, guess what
?
Things are going to change.
Things are going to change inthe future.
Things are going to change now,and that's okay, and that's
okay, and so we're going to behere to sort of support that
change, support things that arecritical in order for you to be
(05:29):
successful in your role as anemerging leader, as a middle
manager or even a C-levelexecutive.
So I'm excited to jump on thisjourney and you know we have a
couple of things, as Lawrencementioned, that are coming out.
The website is going to beupdated in the next few days, I
(05:51):
think.
Actually, today we're going tobe launching a new meeting, so
there'll be a new website, sothere'll be a message that'll be
coming out from that, and thenwe also, you know, we're working
on connecting with folks likeyou, folks that want to be a
part and participate in thispodcast, um, and also folks that
may want to see what the otherside is going to look like other
(06:13):
side of efficient processes.
People know what they're doing.
You don't feel so sluggishbecause things just take too
long at your organization.
So I'm excited to see wherethings move in Q2.
Let's go All right.
So for today, we're going tostart off with a very simple
(06:35):
topic that has very compleximplications.
How do you fix inefficienciesin biopharma?
Processes, departments,functions, ordinances they all
differ from one organization tothe other, whether you're 50 or
100 or 5,000.
(06:57):
There are different procedures,different policies, different
ways of doing things, andoftentimes we are expected to
just sort of walk into anorganization because we have a
skill set, because we've beenbrought in after the interviews
and now we have to hit theground running, but we don't
(07:17):
know how things are conducted.
The road may not be set.
There may not be plans orguidances, and you start to
notice all of these littlethings the amount of time it
takes to onboard a vendorcritical to your science work,
the confusion when onboardingassets from a vendor that
(07:43):
brought them in, set up andprovided no information.
Those are just to name a few.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
As you can imagine, there's going to be many, many
more across up and down theorganization and horizontally,
cross-functionally Bad processes, things that we believe are
clear when in reality they lackthat clarity and that
transparency leading tobottlenecks decreased morale you
(08:12):
name it, and I think foranybody new joining a team or an
organization it may be the normsometimes when you get into a
new group that, oh, this is theway that people do things around
here.
And then you end up, you know,working for a few weeks, a
couple months, and then yourealize wait a minute, things
(08:32):
are taking way too long here toget anything done and it can get
overwhelming to kind of figureout where you start to focus
your efforts.
Because you start to focus yourefforts?
Because you're not sure ifyou're maybe fixing a small part
(08:53):
of the problem or you'reactually fixing the problem
itself.
right, because there's a lot of,I would say symptoms that come
from certain problems that evenif you solve those, it doesn't
resolve the actual root of theproblem.
And so, oscar, you wrote apiece on Substack titled A
Simple Way to Fix Inefficienciesin Our Industry.
So what's kind of the from yourperspective at a very ground
(09:14):
level, for those of us who areperhaps really involved in the
day-to-day operations, like whatis the approach from that end?
And then kind of, if we look atfrom a management perspective,
you know, from a top-down view,like what is that approach
(09:36):
versus the one that's from thebottom up?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
That's a great question and, you know, I think
that these are things that weare all asking ourselves.
You know, as someone who is onthe ground level doing work,
executing on goals as were setforth by the leadership in the
organization, how do we look atsolving problems that we just
(10:04):
see and in a way it sort ofcomes at you like an aggregate.
It's just sort of this feelingyou know you'll find this this
gut feeling that things are justkind of weird, that people you
get kind of responses that are,you know, lazy, kind of sounding
responses.
Well, you know, they did thelast one, Go check on what
(10:26):
they're doing.
That right there, I think, is aflag to say we don't actually
have a process.
That person was the most recentone to do something.
Go chat with them, you knowwhat.
And that may work when you have10, 15 people, because the
visibility to things beingconducted in the organization
are so plentiful.
(10:47):
But when you're in a largerorganization 100, 150 people,
200, 2,000, where do you start?
It really starts with talkingto people.
With talking to people, itreally starts with grounding
yourself of the folks that workwith you, the stakeholders that
work around you and the peoplethat are making decisions.
(11:07):
You know, in some cases you'regoing to hear a lot on how fast
the organization runs.
If you're ready for afast-paced environment, lawrence
, to me that is like an excuseof like hey, we're pretty sloppy
.
So as long as you arecomfortable not really knowing
(11:28):
how to do something becausethings are going so fast, come
join us.
That's what that tells me,that's what I've recognized.
I see a fast-paced fast-pacedand you go in there and there's
no structure.
It's a group of really smart,really intelligent people,
originally good at management,scheduling, creating plans,
(11:53):
creating projections.
But again, you know, these aresort of things that have
continued to evolve at earlyorganizations that don't get
addressed Later on in the future.
They just become bigger issuesor simply a black hole where no
one knows.
So you try to do work andcircumvent that process.
(12:14):
Well, how can I deal withwithout that, since we don't
have a way going?
So you're down there and you'rein the trenches.
What do you need to do?
Ideally, you would go and talkto your manager.
I don't know.
You know, in some cases that'snot the that's not the best path
forward, because they don'tknow either right, and then that
there's and here comes the likethe two concepts of like.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
If so, if you are an individual contributor versus
somebody who's like driving theum I I would say the strategic
objectives of the organizationat the management level you're
really concerned about.
Do we have the right strategyfor what we're trying to drive
the company towards?
Are we making the rightdecisions today to get to where
(12:56):
we need to go tomorrow?
And so I think leadershipmanagement should have a very
strong sense of what thestrategy is.
I think the problem comes whenyou try to execute the strategy
and the people on the groundlevel aren't necessarily,
they're not recognizing.
Okay, well, what exactly?
Why are we doing this strategy?
Right, you have to reallyexplain that to them and get
(13:18):
people to buy in so that theyunderstand OK, we're executing
this because of this strategy.
But I find that normally thatthat messaging somehow gets
really diluted by the time thatyou get to the people on the
front line and then they end upjust executing all these things
and they're like what is thepoint of all this?
And I think there needs to bebetter communication, I think
(13:41):
overall, with how thattranslates back and forth.
You know from the ground level.
If you're not giving theopportunity to execute that
strategy, you need to speak upand say we're not set up for
success because of A, b and CRight, rather than like, okay,
we'll try to do MissionImpossible again and kind of
fall on your face Like what doyou think about that?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
You know it's tricky when you're at an organization
that you don't really have ahistory of and then what you end
up finding in a lot of cases isoh, the new person has
something else to say.
The new person has another,because everybody else at that
organization they've learned todeal with it.
Everybody on your team, they'vejust learned to deal with it.
(14:24):
Why?
Because they're working so hardhard, not efficient.
They're working so hard thatthey haven't had the time to
pull back and say what would Ido here, what would I do to make
this more efficient?
And if they have, they may nothave told anybody.
It's been my experience thateven folks that are directly in
(14:44):
their team do not recognize thevalue when they create something
that expedites a process thatuses the tools that they already
have.
You know you don't see any moreon job descriptions that it's
time to.
You know you have MicrosoftExcel, you have this, you have
this.
It goes straight into likehere's your education, here's.
(15:06):
You know what experience you'vehad?
Nothing related to the tools.
But in any of theseorganizations I mean, look how
many SaaS providers areavailable, look how many AI
organizations have spawned inthe last three years you cannot
expect people to come in andjust be able to know how to use
(15:27):
the tools that you're using andthe tools that you do have.
Are you even leveraging thosethings?
I think you put it perfectlywhen you're looking at okay well
, I'm an individual contributor,but how am I making that
connection from the strategy tothe execution?
I find a lot of times there isreally no bridge, that you have
(15:49):
the middle management layer thatshould be this connecting piece
between the strategy and howyou execute, and it sort of
becomes more of like a managerthat is still executing tasks
from their manager, whether it'sa VP or a C-level executive,
and it shouldn't be that way.
That middle group that peopleare trying to lay off in many
(16:16):
organizations they are theconduit to translate the
strategy that is filled withjargon, filled with language.
That is not something you cangrasp onto to say, okay, well,
now that we have that strategyor those corporate goals, what
(16:36):
are we supposed to be doingtoward that end?
And when you find out whatyou're supposed to be doing,
what are we supposed to be doingtoward that end?
And when you find out whatyou're supposed to be doing,
what you're going to be doing,what your goals are now.
You need to figure out how doyou optimize how quickly you can
get those done.
Just because you say that agoal is going to be, you know Q4
, you know of this year, etcetera, you don't have to wait
(16:57):
to do those things.
If you find an efficient way todo them, knock them off your
list.
Knock them off of that list ofthings to do.
But again, you need to makesure that you're developing that
connection of what are weactually trying to do and how
are we set up to accomplish thisup to accomplish this?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, I think to your point.
Let's start at the middle.
I think it sounds like theproblem has a lot to do with the
person in the middle, and so ifyou're getting a strategy from
somebody above you, that personabove you should be asking you,
do you understand the strategyand what is your execution plan
(17:39):
to drive that strategy right?
Understand the strategy andwhat is your execution plan to
drive that strategy right?
And I think if you're one levelbelow the person in the middle,
you're asking okay, what is theexecution plan for the strategy
that you want me to drive?
And you need, like, in themiddle, you need to be able to
answer both the top and thebottom right.
And so I think this kind oftransitions us to you know, how
(18:02):
do you create that, thatmomentum of these, these wins
that you can have?
You know when you're in thatposition right, because it may
be very overwhelming to justtell your team to hey, we have a
big initiative to drive and Iwant you to do all these things.
But that's not a um, I think adigestible message not
(18:24):
digestible and it's, it's, it'schanged right, like I think
people are just not used to uh,being very flexible in those
like environments where you haveto change the way that you're
doing, especially because youjust adapted to the most recent,
you know change that camethrough and then all of a sudden
you're shifting again right.
So there's a balance between, um, creating like this, a small,
(18:48):
you know, these small stepsuntil you you reach to a point
where, like, okay, look guys, Ithink now we we have enough
momentum to kind of really focuson the, the big change that we
want to make.
I'm interested to hear, like,do you have an example of
something that started out smallbut then eventually snowballed
into this big thing and itgained momentum?
Because it's usually not theother way around, where you tell
everybody, hey, we have thismassive thing to do, and then
(19:10):
people go, oh, look at all theselittle things that we have to
fix.
It usually goes the other way,where you're working on
something small and it becomessomething bigger.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
When you think about it.
When you're trying to build asnowman, you don't start with a
giant ball for the bottom.
You have to create that.
You've seen that picture.
There's probably a CharlieBrown episode a Peanuts episode
where they have a snowball atthe top of the hill and it
slowly gains momentum andbecomes this massive force with
(19:38):
more mass, with more content,with more you know, in this case
, ability to generate insights,and that's really what we're
trying to do.
You know, if you look at how anorganization is structured I
don't care about there beingflat, et cetera In some way,
every person at the organizationthis is 2025, every person at
(20:01):
the organization has a digitalfootprint somewhere.
The work that you're doingtranslates into something.
You are developing output ofsome kind.
It could be a Word document,powerpoints, it could be
timelines, it could be goals,budgets.
Everybody is developingsomething.
Everybody is developingsomething.
(20:25):
The ultimate goal to figure outif you are actually going where
you're supposed to be going.
1% each day.
(20:47):
You have improved yourself 365%in a year and more than likely,
the value would probably bemore than that.
A simple example of startingwith small things but
maintaining consistency.
I think what people fail torealize is that when we talk
(21:07):
about process improvement, whenwe talk about operational
efficiency, it's not just rightnow, because times are going to
change.
I mean, look at where theindustry is now.
People are drawing back on allof these innovative things and
trying to double down on thethings that have given them
profit.
You know, I think there's anopportunity here that you need
(21:31):
to start looking at.
You know, take that, take thatbig piece.
You need to have someone tohave the vision of that big
piece, that big change, andstarting small.
I have the vision of that bigpiece, that big change, and
starting small.
I work very often withSmartsheet, with the software.
I've been using that forprobably going on about nine
years now and I've done over10,000 somewhere around there
(21:59):
dashboards, reports, sheets,things like that.
So I'm very aware of thedifferent things that are used
and how to use them within thespace.
Well, I had a client that I wasworking with and I noticed that
they had a license, they had acouple spaces and I said, oh,
what are you guys using this for?
And they said, well, we're justusing it for the timelines,
just marking out the executivemilestones.
(22:21):
This was important.
This was a piece of theirreporting mechanism to show
leaders and potential partners.
This is our pipeline, here'swhere they are and here's where
we expect them to be.
So, not really a lot.
Maybe five or six line itemsacross 20 projects.
And then when you start to lookat, well, how are we managing
the project?
To deliver that it had adifferent look.
(22:44):
Using, perhaps, project usingMicrosoft Word to capture
information.
You know, dates were in onespace but not in another.
Very difficult to navigate wherethings existed in SharePoint
because there was no unifiedstructure for how to maintain
your data, so you're justconstantly digging.
(23:06):
So when I started working withthem, the main piece that we had
to consider was well, how do weget to that desired future
state?
That's really what it was about.
How do we get to the spacewhere you guys are not fighting
fires to collect information, toprovide an update?
Over and over and over again,you are providing and this was
(23:30):
with a program management office, program management team, and
the messaging that I deliveredwas one that was to give them
pride in the work that they'redoing and the desire to want to
share that, because they werethe harbors of the information.
No one knew their programsbetter than they did from an
(23:52):
operational standpoint, and thatis important.
The strategy is important, theresults, the scientific results,
are important, but if you don'thave your operations intact,
those things are going to lackcontext, they're going to lack
clarity and they're probably notgoing to be very accurate,
right?
So we had to take what was notreally a structure and how they
(24:13):
ran their projects or theirprograms into a structured
format, preparing for growth andfor scale.
So in that sense, we didn'tjust go up to them and say, hey,
I'm aware of this feature, ofthis add-on that Smartsheet has
creates this big system whereyou can make modifications
(24:36):
across the whole project, xyz,whatever.
That's too much.
You know.
You hear, like, how do you eatan elephant?
One bite at a time?
You know, eat the frog.
You know, tackle that thingthat you really don't want to do
in that day.
But there is a strategy tomaking things stick, to making
things lead to adoption.
(24:57):
That strategy is not launchinga big project.
You need to have incrementalchanges.
So we had to change the behavior, not just the platforms that
they were using, but thebehavior of the program managers
, in order to allow their workto become more efficient, in
(25:20):
order to allow for thosereporting and those portfolio
roll-up dashboards.
So this was an opportunity thatspanned many months.
We did multiple projects as apart of this bigger initiative
and we are starting to see notjust the adoption from the teams
(25:43):
.
We're seeing adoption fromleadership, from middle manager,
from cross-functional leads.
They're excited because theyknow where things are.
They recognize that everybodyis aware of those processes, of
what to do, of where to go, ofhow to find it, of what the
(26:04):
context is, because you start tobring those pieces together and
, as that happens, you start toget more curiosity.
And I think that curiosity isreally what opens the door to
collaborations in yourorganization to expand that
footprint and expand thattransfer of knowledge.
(26:26):
That's not just word of mouth,there's actually something to
ground and connect and createthe context for where your
portfolio is.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Right, and you end up speaking the same language.
The point here is that, you know, having visibility to the
things that are being donetowards some sort of goal, I
think just increases thecredibility and even the
validity of the work that isbeing committed to certain
initiatives.
Right, because oftentimes Ithink there's so many different
(26:58):
ways to communicate how a statusis for a certain project or a
task and people spend so muchtime just providing updates and
not actually doing actual work.
And so establishing thevisibility and that dashboard,
whatever you want to call it, Ithink allows for not only better
(27:19):
discussions around what weshould do next, but overall, I
think decision-making starts tochange.
Right, you start to have theseconversations that are much more
geared towards, okay, what'sreally going to change?
The way that the company isgrowing or the way that the
group is going, right?
So I'm curious in that examplethat you provided, is there a
(27:41):
very, let's say, simpleframework that you used in
developing that?
Right, because I think, at facevalue, you can say, okay, yeah,
we talked to like 30 people andwe created all these things and
it can get.
These things can take a lot oftime, but I think the point
you're making is like thesnowball example right, you
start with just a piece of it,just talk to whoever it is that
(28:05):
is receiving the informationthat you're providing.
Where's the value creation?
Right, and then start to buildblocks out of that and then it
becomes something else.
But how do you even begin withcreating that first initial
piece of this snowball thatyou're going to create?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Right, you got to find out like where's the snow,
where's the snow, where's thesnow?
That can help me build this out.
So I think, really, theframework that we utilized that
we did was you know, we talkedto our client sponsor, asked
what their concerns were, whatthey struggled with, and then we
had those conversations withthe team at the ground level.
(28:45):
Okay, now we know where this isgoing.
So, in this sense, we focusedmore on the roles and
responsibilities of a givenfunction, so we recognize that
we were able to have a littlebit more influence in our direct
teams.
Now here's the thing A lot offolks don't want to really have
(29:06):
these conversations untilthey're ready to show something
big Part of our delivery, partof how I deliver.
This is really understanding.
Okay, let's find out where yourproblem is.
What's the biggest problemthat's troubling you right now?
Well, we don't have an abilityto create updates the way we
need to.
When we do them manually, ittakes us about two hours to
(29:29):
collate all the information.
Okay, so let's start first.
What information do you haveaccess to, what information
comes from other people?
Because then you have torecognize now what is the input
into your system and what is theoutput of your system, and your
system can be your function oryour department or your
(29:50):
particular role on a project.
Once you start to understandthat, you can then start to make
changes in your space.
I personally choose toexperiment in my own work and
then, once I find somethingthat's valid, I start talking
with folks, I start presenting alittle bit more and I don't
(30:13):
mean formal presentations Istart informing them.
These are the things that Ihave figured out how to do.
Hey, you know that one problemwe had yesterday where they
didn't really have visibilityinto what the status was or the
upcoming dates for et cetera.
Let me show you something thatI did and that starts the
(30:33):
conversation.
Whether or not they decide toadopt something similar, it's
irrelevant.
You need to have exposure tothese changes in order for them
to take off.
You talking to somebody onetime about something you did
it's going to disappear.
They're busy.
You need to have thisconsistent messaging of I want
things to be better and really,the way that we carry this out
(30:57):
is to make sure that we're notadding additional layers of work
.
We are going to decrease theamount of effort that you're
doing right now on the same workthat you're doing.
Once we can manage that, thenwe can start looking at other
initiatives.
Well, now we have more time thanwe can plan for this.
We can have more time toexperiment.
We can have more time to think,time to think.
(31:19):
Imagine that Going to work tothink we're not being paid for
the tasks, we're being paid forour experience, our knowledge,
our strategy.
But we rarely have time to dothose things.
So, you know, we go in there,we understand.
What are these low-hanging fruitthat will start to change how
(31:40):
we work, start to improve thetransparency, improve the
visibility and what this alsodoes, lawrence.
It starts to create a system ofaccountability.
Gone are the days where peoplecan send you a message as a
project manager myself in thosedays.
Oscar, can you give me the listof nope?
(32:03):
Here's the link to it.
It is time to be accountablefor your own work.
I'm going to provide all theinformation.
I'm going to show you where itis.
Here's how it rolls up.
This is now taking charge ofyour role and putting
accountability on the projectteams.
You need to be able to pullthese out and make the
(32:25):
conclusions as well.
Find the next step.
So, really working within yourfunction, within the work that
you're doing, I would say isprobably the easiest and
probably the quickest way to getsmall change to happen, and it
could be small change from.
Well, I have to send everymonth.
(32:46):
I have to send out a new reportabout something.
Look at what you're doing, findthe systems that you're using
and see if there's a way toautomate a delivery of a report
monthly.
If it's tracking the work thatyou're doing, then it's just you
working every day and thenevery month you get a report.
We just had one that got sentout and I got a reply back email
(33:06):
that asked to add three morepeople.
This isn't even the finalversion, but they're already
finding value.
They're like, hey, can we addthese people?
I think they could use this tounderstand what is about to come
into my space, what is on theway.
When you create these systems,you're no longer surprised what
(33:28):
we got another project, what wegot another initiative.
You see all of it Right.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
You're essentially reestablishing what the norm
should be right and I think, tokind of recap you know a couple
of things that we just discussedis, I think this really centers
around really getting to knowwhat people are doing that they
shouldn't be doing anymore ormaybe they find annoying or
inefficient, right.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Really getting a sense of what's going on right.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
And then, once you do that right, you can start to
craft a plan to really tacklethe small things.
It's just to start out and thenyou create momentum, and I
think the important thing hereis to really make sure that, if
others are planning to do thesame thing, that you guys use a
very similar framework in howyou establish these initiatives
to change throughout yourcompany.
(34:15):
Away from this episode, whatshould it be?
But I think I'm going to saywhat's the one thing people
should not be doing if they arelooking to change some of these
inefficient ways of working attheir companies.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
One thing to not do is everybody else's work.
I think at times when you aredeveloping efficiencies, when
you're finding new ways aroundthings, you become sort of this
jack of all trades, master ofnone, and you start to get
pulled into these like sidequests, which they can be
beneficial, but it should notimpede on the work that you are
(35:00):
required to do as your role, arerequired to do as your role.
You know the other part that Iwould probably say too.
I tend to keep leaders in thedark because the higher you go
up, the quicker it'll be to geta no, because the level of
conversation has to be differentwhen you go higher up.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah, when you go higher up.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You sort of need to present something and say we did
this and this is the changethat had happened.
If you go up to a leader, to aco-founder I actually saw this
recent with somebody close to methey said I have a big plan and
I asked them like well, do youknow what that leader is
concerned about?
Do you know what they reallycare about?
(35:46):
They went to have theconversation and it got squashed
right away because they didn'tsee the value.
I had five conversations withthis person.
I see the value now, but havingjust one conversation with
nothing to notice nothing, toshow nothing to, I do not do
that.
(36:06):
I think the thing that has mademe successful in doing
organizational, doing any change, is that I'm going to do the
change as a part of my work I'mgoing to find, because if the
organization does not want youto improve a process, you should
not be working at thatorganization.
So you have every right to lookat the work that you're doing
and say how can not be workingat that organization.
So you have every right to lookat the work that you're doing
(36:27):
and say how can I be better,make that part of your work,
make that a goal, even so, thatit is there in writing and find
something.
Find something, buildprototypes of it, whether or not
.
I mean it can be as simple ashey.
I built a new template for thatPowerPoint slide that we're
constantly doing, and I createdheaders and links inside of it
(36:52):
so that you can go back andforth like a document.
There's so many things inPowerPoint that people just
inherently do not do, becausetheir quote unquote experience
is just dragging and droppingand formatting font.
Unquote experience is justdragging and dropping and
formatting font.
That's not expertise inPowerPoint, sorry.
(37:13):
So you know, get somethingtogether.
Talk to your manager about it.
Tell them that you're reallykeen on fixing something.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, I think there's definitely starting with the
mindset first is kind of thefoundation, and I was gonna.
I was gonna say the exact samething, but I will not steal your
answer and I will say, um, thatthe next important thing is to
not assume that the tools thatyou've been using will get you
to where you need to be right.
So I think this is like reallytrue in the last couple years,
(37:40):
when we've seen the emergence ofall of the large language
models and like ChatGPT, claudeGemini, you know, there's
Copilot, all of these differenttools that you can apply to your
work, but you need to know howto do that right, and so there's
a bit of experimenting that youhave to do, obviously, to
(38:02):
figure out you know what theright fit is for your workflow,
but there are just so many othertools, like Smartsheet,
mondaycom, all these differenttools that are really going to
accelerate not only theefficiency but also the
effectiveness of what you'redoing right.
And so if you're just usingOutlook, excel, powerpoint,
(38:23):
sharepoint and just the verysurface level features of those
tools, it will not allow you tonot only perform to what the
upper management, c-levelexecutives, are capable of, but
it's really going to constrainyou in what you can do
creatively right.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You're not going to grow.
You won't grow.
You're not going to grow.
Yeah, creatively right, You'renot going to grow.
You won't grow.
You're not going to grow.
Yeah, If I could say anything,if your organization is going to
provide training I don't careif it's for PowerPoint or
SharePoint you should go atleast once.
If you think you know, go, Findout what they're doing this.
(39:02):
And if you're an organizationthat doesn't provide training,
shame on you.
You should not go in there.
This is why you get multipleskill levels with the same piece
of equipment, with the samesoftware that you're using
across the company.
If this is so vital to yourorganization, it is your
responsibility to provide somelayer of training to ensure a
(39:26):
consistent baseline of youremployee.
And I'll stop there so I don'tmake anybody too mad.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
No, I think this was a great discussion and just for
a preview for our next episode.
So we're going to kind ofcontinue down this road of
(40:03):
discussing the approach veryhard on for the last I don't
know how many weeks, but theBiopharma Nexus model, and
you'll see a lot of content thathe's put out on LinkedIn, but
also on his sub stack as well.
So we'll be diving into that inmore detail on the next episode
and, yeah, it's going to be avery uh, I think, in-depth
(40:25):
conversation of how you seepieces of the puzzle coming
together, especially fororganizations that have so many
different levers, and what theyhave to do to accomplish what
their strategy is yeah, andsometimes that's the hardest
thing is looking beyond thoseand and breaking down an
organization to say how is thisorganization the same as any
(40:49):
other organization?
Speaker 1 (40:50):
What are they missing , what are they lacking, what do
they do?
Well, I'm excited for thatconversation, Lawrence, and
thanks everybody for stickingwith us and being part of this
journey.
We're going to continue tocrank out episodes through the
rest of this year and if you areinterested in sponsoring, if
you're sponsoring an episode, ifyou're interested on being a
(41:11):
guest on the show we have anumber of folks that have
reached out to us so we are inthe process of scheduling those
Send us an email at leanbydesignat sigmalabconsultingcom.
We'll also put some things inthe show notes so that you have
access to those.
It can really start to look athow can we, how can you start to
(41:33):
make a change in yourorganization and if, Lawrence
I'm going to add this otherpiece here we have updated our
assessments to help you assessyour organization.
It's a simple quiz withpowerful results and something
that you can take to your leaderto say hey, I think we can
(41:53):
start doing a couple of thesethings.
So we'll put those in the shownotes.
Lawrence, thanks for your time.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, see you guys next time.
Welcome back to another episode of Lean by
Design podcast.
I'm your host, oscar Gonzalez,alongside my co-host and partner
, lawrence Wong, and we areapproaching I guess we're going
to call this season two.
It's been a little bit sincewe've been.
We're now recording here thisis March 6th and it's been a
little bit of time since we'vebeen able to get on the
(00:21):
microphones, primarily due to alot of the work that's been
going on working with clients,finding new avenues to continue
reaching our client base andmaking sure that we're
delivering optimal solutions forfolks.
To stop working so hard.
Lawrence, you want to addanything there?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, we've been doing a lot of, I would say,
business development, but we'realso just rebranding some stuff
through LinkedIn, also ourwebsite, and then just making
sure that content and what yousee when you try to reach out to
us, everything aligns.
And I think, because we'veevolved so much since I don't
(01:03):
know when did we start this Twoyears ago that, like, everything
has slowly, slowly changed andif you don't update those things
, it becomes a loss intranslation sometimes if you're
reaching out to us in differentformats.
So, yeah, it's just been, Ithink, doing a lot of work
internally but also just tryingto make sure that we're reaching
(01:23):
the people that are in need ofthe value that we're trying to
provide to the industry.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I think that's such a great point In the.
For those that have notlistened to us before, thank you
for joining us.
We've seen that our previousepisodes have continued to drive
value, continue to drivelisteners and received a lot of
messages coming back to us toparticipate and be part of our
(01:51):
podcast.
So we're excited to beginreaching out to those folks as
we're starting to schedule thisnext year of podcasting and
really bringing you guys guestsand topics that are things that
you care about and just seeinghow are people conducting
operational efficiency?
How are people fixing things intheir workplace?
(02:11):
Where do they start?
We're going to talk a littlebit about that today, but I
think what Lawrence reallyLawrence, I think what you
alluded to, which is reallyimportant is that as
organizations are growing,there's an evolution.
There's an evolution in how youperceive yourself, how others
perceive your organization, andthere's an evolution to really
(02:33):
how we recognize where the valueis and how we convey that
messaging.
So it's really important and Ithink you can say you know you
can add this perspective as well, lawrence is that I want to
make sure that we're connectingeverything together, from the
assessments that we've createdto content on our LinkedIn, of
(03:07):
developing a book to helpsupport those that are looking
for ways to start withoperational efficiency or
organizational efficiency andproductivity, really in the
biopharma space.
So there's all these littlepieces and tools that we've been
developing and, as we work withorganizations, that niche, that
direction continues to becomemore and more focused so that we
(03:29):
can make sure that we're nowyou know, now we're in March
already.
(03:52):
I just stepped outside.
It's about 50 degrees outside,which I don't think we've seen
that since October probably.
And for those that don't know,we're just out of the Boston
area, so right in the NewEngland area, no stranger to
inches and feet worth of snow.
So a lot of that has started tomelt away, so I'm happy for
(04:13):
that.
I'm ready to get outside of thehouse.
I've been in here for quite abit of the last couple of months
Seasonally depressed.
Man, that sun stayed away for awhile and that cold stuck around
.
So I'm really excited to getout there and not only that, but
have engagements and networkingwhere we can have coffee and
meet with folks you know outsideand just enjoy some vitamin D.
(04:37):
There's been a steady evolutionto the work we've done and as
(05:07):
we continue to work, we alsocontinue to learn.
That is something that I thinkthat we hold very true to the
values of working with Sigma LabConsulting as being co-founders
and bringing new knowledge topeople that you know.
Hey, we're going through, youknow, books and podcasts and
articles and white papers tobring you the newest information
, to bring you the newest lineof thinking, because, guess what
?
Things are going to change.
Things are going to change inthe future.
Things are going to change now,and that's okay, and that's
okay, and so we're going to behere to sort of support that
change, support things that arecritical in order for you to be
(05:29):
successful in your role as anemerging leader, as a middle
manager or even a C-levelexecutive.
So I'm excited to jump on thisjourney and you know we have a
couple of things, as Lawrencementioned, that are coming out.
The website is going to beupdated in the next few days, I
(05:51):
think.
Actually, today we're going tobe launching a new meeting, so
there'll be a new website, sothere'll be a message that'll be
coming out from that, and thenwe also, you know, we're working
on connecting with folks likeyou, folks that want to be a
part and participate in thispodcast, um, and also folks that
may want to see what the otherside is going to look like other
(06:13):
side of efficient processes.
People know what they're doing.
You don't feel so sluggishbecause things just take too
long at your organization.
So I'm excited to see wherethings move in Q2.
Let's go All right.
So for today, we're going tostart off with a very simple
(06:35):
topic that has very compleximplications.
How do you fix inefficienciesin biopharma?
Processes, departments,functions, ordinances they all
differ from one organization tothe other, whether you're 50 or
100 or 5,000.
(06:57):
There are different procedures,different policies, different
ways of doing things, andoftentimes we are expected to
just sort of walk into anorganization because we have a
skill set, because we've beenbrought in after the interviews
and now we have to hit theground running, but we don't
(07:17):
know how things are conducted.
The road may not be set.
There may not be plans orguidances, and you start to
notice all of these littlethings the amount of time it
takes to onboard a vendorcritical to your science work,
the confusion when onboardingassets from a vendor that
(07:43):
brought them in, set up andprovided no information.
Those are just to name a few.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
As you can imagine, there's going to be many, many
more across up and down theorganization and horizontally,
cross-functionally Bad processes, things that we believe are
clear when in reality they lackthat clarity and that
transparency leading tobottlenecks decreased morale you
(08:12):
name it, and I think foranybody new joining a team or an
organization it may be the normsometimes when you get into a
new group that, oh, this is theway that people do things around
here.
And then you end up, you know,working for a few weeks, a
couple months, and then yourealize wait a minute, things
(08:32):
are taking way too long here toget anything done and it can get
overwhelming to kind of figureout where you start to focus
your efforts.
Because you start to focus yourefforts?
Because you're not sure ifyou're maybe fixing a small part
(08:53):
of the problem or you'reactually fixing the problem
itself.
right, because there's a lot of,I would say symptoms that come
from certain problems that evenif you solve those, it doesn't
resolve the actual root of theproblem.
And so, oscar, you wrote apiece on Substack titled A
Simple Way to Fix Inefficienciesin Our Industry.
So what's kind of the from yourperspective at a very ground
(09:14):
level, for those of us who areperhaps really involved in the
day-to-day operations, like whatis the approach from that end?
And then kind of, if we look atfrom a management perspective,
you know, from a top-down view,like what is that approach
(09:36):
versus the one that's from thebottom up?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
That's a great question and, you know, I think
that these are things that weare all asking ourselves.
You know, as someone who is onthe ground level doing work,
executing on goals as were setforth by the leadership in the
organization, how do we look atsolving problems that we just
(10:04):
see and in a way it sort ofcomes at you like an aggregate.
It's just sort of this feelingyou know you'll find this this
gut feeling that things are justkind of weird, that people you
get kind of responses that are,you know, lazy, kind of sounding
responses.
Well, you know, they did thelast one, Go check on what
(10:26):
they're doing.
That right there, I think, is aflag to say we don't actually
have a process.
That person was the most recentone to do something.
Go chat with them, you knowwhat.
And that may work when you have10, 15 people, because the
visibility to things beingconducted in the organization
are so plentiful.
(10:47):
But when you're in a largerorganization 100, 150 people,
200, 2,000, where do you start?
It really starts with talkingto people.
With talking to people, itreally starts with grounding
yourself of the folks that workwith you, the stakeholders that
work around you and the peoplethat are making decisions.
(11:07):
You know, in some cases you'regoing to hear a lot on how fast
the organization runs.
If you're ready for afast-paced environment, lawrence
, to me that is like an excuseof like hey, we're pretty sloppy
.
So as long as you arecomfortable not really knowing
(11:28):
how to do something becausethings are going so fast, come
join us.
That's what that tells me,that's what I've recognized.
I see a fast-paced fast-pacedand you go in there and there's
no structure.
It's a group of really smart,really intelligent people,
originally good at management,scheduling, creating plans,
(11:53):
creating projections.
But again, you know, these aresort of things that have
continued to evolve at earlyorganizations that don't get
addressed Later on in the future.
They just become bigger issuesor simply a black hole where no
one knows.
So you try to do work andcircumvent that process.
(12:14):
Well, how can I deal withwithout that, since we don't
have a way going?
So you're down there and you'rein the trenches.
What do you need to do?
Ideally, you would go and talkto your manager.
I don't know.
You know, in some cases that'snot the that's not the best path
forward, because they don'tknow either right, and then that
there's and here comes the likethe two concepts of like.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
If so, if you are an individual contributor versus
somebody who's like driving theum I I would say the strategic
objectives of the organizationat the management level you're
really concerned about.
Do we have the right strategyfor what we're trying to drive
the company towards?
Are we making the rightdecisions today to get to where
(12:56):
we need to go tomorrow?
And so I think leadershipmanagement should have a very
strong sense of what thestrategy is.
I think the problem comes whenyou try to execute the strategy
and the people on the groundlevel aren't necessarily,
they're not recognizing.
Okay, well, what exactly?
Why are we doing this strategy?
Right, you have to reallyexplain that to them and get
(13:18):
people to buy in so that theyunderstand OK, we're executing
this because of this strategy.
But I find that normally thatthat messaging somehow gets
really diluted by the time thatyou get to the people on the
front line and then they end upjust executing all these things
and they're like what is thepoint of all this?
And I think there needs to bebetter communication, I think
(13:41):
overall, with how thattranslates back and forth.
You know from the ground level.
If you're not giving theopportunity to execute that
strategy, you need to speak upand say we're not set up for
success because of A, b and CRight, rather than like, okay,
we'll try to do MissionImpossible again and kind of
fall on your face Like what doyou think about that?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
You know it's tricky when you're at an organization
that you don't really have ahistory of and then what you end
up finding in a lot of cases isoh, the new person has
something else to say.
The new person has another,because everybody else at that
organization they've learned todeal with it.
Everybody on your team, they'vejust learned to deal with it.
(14:24):
Why?
Because they're working so hardhard, not efficient.
They're working so hard thatthey haven't had the time to
pull back and say what would Ido here, what would I do to make
this more efficient?
And if they have, they may nothave told anybody.
It's been my experience thateven folks that are directly in
(14:44):
their team do not recognize thevalue when they create something
that expedites a process thatuses the tools that they already
have.
You know you don't see any moreon job descriptions that it's
time to.
You know you have MicrosoftExcel, you have this, you have
this.
It goes straight into likehere's your education, here's.
(15:06):
You know what experience you'vehad?
Nothing related to the tools.
But in any of theseorganizations I mean, look how
many SaaS providers areavailable, look how many AI
organizations have spawned inthe last three years you cannot
expect people to come in andjust be able to know how to use
(15:27):
the tools that you're using andthe tools that you do have.
Are you even leveraging thosethings?
I think you put it perfectlywhen you're looking at okay well
, I'm an individual contributor,but how am I making that
connection from the strategy tothe execution?
I find a lot of times there isreally no bridge, that you have
(15:49):
the middle management layer thatshould be this connecting piece
between the strategy and howyou execute, and it sort of
becomes more of like a managerthat is still executing tasks
from their manager, whether it'sa VP or a C-level executive,
and it shouldn't be that way.
That middle group that peopleare trying to lay off in many
(16:16):
organizations they are theconduit to translate the
strategy that is filled withjargon, filled with language.
That is not something you cangrasp onto to say, okay, well,
now that we have that strategyor those corporate goals, what
(16:36):
are we supposed to be doingtoward that end?
And when you find out whatyou're supposed to be doing,
what are we supposed to be doingtoward that end?
And when you find out whatyou're supposed to be doing,
what you're going to be doing,what your goals are now.
You need to figure out how doyou optimize how quickly you can
get those done.
Just because you say that agoal is going to be, you know Q4
, you know of this year, etcetera, you don't have to wait
(16:57):
to do those things.
If you find an efficient way todo them, knock them off your
list.
Knock them off of that list ofthings to do.
But again, you need to makesure that you're developing that
connection of what are weactually trying to do and how
are we set up to accomplish thisup to accomplish this?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, I think to your point.
Let's start at the middle.
I think it sounds like theproblem has a lot to do with the
person in the middle, and so ifyou're getting a strategy from
somebody above you, that personabove you should be asking you,
do you understand the strategyand what is your execution plan
(17:39):
to drive that strategy right?
Understand the strategy andwhat is your execution plan to
drive that strategy right?
And I think if you're one levelbelow the person in the middle,
you're asking okay, what is theexecution plan for the strategy
that you want me to drive?
And you need, like, in themiddle, you need to be able to
answer both the top and thebottom right.
And so I think this kind oftransitions us to you know, how
(18:02):
do you create that, thatmomentum of these, these wins
that you can have?
You know when you're in thatposition right, because it may
be very overwhelming to justtell your team to hey, we have a
big initiative to drive and Iwant you to do all these things.
But that's not a um, I think adigestible message not
(18:24):
digestible and it's, it's, it'schanged right, like I think
people are just not used to uh,being very flexible in those
like environments where you haveto change the way that you're
doing, especially because youjust adapted to the most recent,
you know change that camethrough and then all of a sudden
you're shifting again right.
So there's a balance between, um, creating like this, a small,
(18:48):
you know, these small stepsuntil you you reach to a point
where, like, okay, look guys, Ithink now we we have enough
momentum to kind of really focuson the, the big change that we
want to make.
I'm interested to hear, like,do you have an example of
something that started out smallbut then eventually snowballed
into this big thing and itgained momentum?
Because it's usually not theother way around, where you tell
everybody, hey, we have thismassive thing to do, and then
(19:10):
people go, oh, look at all theselittle things that we have to
fix.
It usually goes the other way,where you're working on
something small and it becomessomething bigger.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
When you think about it.
When you're trying to build asnowman, you don't start with a
giant ball for the bottom.
You have to create that.
You've seen that picture.
There's probably a CharlieBrown episode a Peanuts episode
where they have a snowball atthe top of the hill and it
slowly gains momentum andbecomes this massive force with
(19:38):
more mass, with more content,with more you know, in this case
, ability to generate insights,and that's really what we're
trying to do.
You know, if you look at how anorganization is structured I
don't care about there beingflat, et cetera In some way,
every person at the organizationthis is 2025, every person at
(20:01):
the organization has a digitalfootprint somewhere.
The work that you're doingtranslates into something.
You are developing output ofsome kind.
It could be a Word document,powerpoints, it could be
timelines, it could be goals,budgets.
Everybody is developingsomething.
Everybody is developingsomething.
(20:25):
The ultimate goal to figure outif you are actually going where
you're supposed to be going.
1% each day.
(20:47):
You have improved yourself 365%in a year and more than likely,
the value would probably bemore than that.
A simple example of startingwith small things but
maintaining consistency.
I think what people fail torealize is that when we talk
(21:07):
about process improvement, whenwe talk about operational
efficiency, it's not just rightnow, because times are going to
change.
I mean, look at where theindustry is now.
People are drawing back on allof these innovative things and
trying to double down on thethings that have given them
profit.
You know, I think there's anopportunity here that you need
(21:31):
to start looking at.
You know, take that, take thatbig piece.
You need to have someone tohave the vision of that big
piece, that big change, andstarting small.
I have the vision of that bigpiece, that big change, and
starting small.
I work very often withSmartsheet, with the software.
I've been using that forprobably going on about nine
years now and I've done over10,000 somewhere around there
(21:59):
dashboards, reports, sheets,things like that.
So I'm very aware of thedifferent things that are used
and how to use them within thespace.
Well, I had a client that I wasworking with and I noticed that
they had a license, they had acouple spaces and I said, oh,
what are you guys using this for?
And they said, well, we're justusing it for the timelines,
just marking out the executivemilestones.
(22:21):
This was important.
This was a piece of theirreporting mechanism to show
leaders and potential partners.
This is our pipeline, here'swhere they are and here's where
we expect them to be.
So, not really a lot.
Maybe five or six line itemsacross 20 projects.
And then when you start to lookat, well, how are we managing
the project?
To deliver that it had adifferent look.
(22:44):
Using, perhaps, project usingMicrosoft Word to capture
information.
You know, dates were in onespace but not in another.
Very difficult to navigate wherethings existed in SharePoint
because there was no unifiedstructure for how to maintain
your data, so you're justconstantly digging.
(23:06):
So when I started working withthem, the main piece that we had
to consider was well, how do weget to that desired future
state?
That's really what it was about.
How do we get to the spacewhere you guys are not fighting
fires to collect information, toprovide an update?
Over and over and over again,you are providing and this was
(23:30):
with a program management office, program management team, and
the messaging that I deliveredwas one that was to give them
pride in the work that they'redoing and the desire to want to
share that, because they werethe harbors of the information.
No one knew their programsbetter than they did from an
(23:52):
operational standpoint, and thatis important.
The strategy is important, theresults, the scientific results,
are important, but if you don'thave your operations intact,
those things are going to lackcontext, they're going to lack
clarity and they're probably notgoing to be very accurate,
right?
So we had to take what was notreally a structure and how they
(24:13):
ran their projects or theirprograms into a structured
format, preparing for growth andfor scale.
So in that sense, we didn'tjust go up to them and say, hey,
I'm aware of this feature, ofthis add-on that Smartsheet has
creates this big system whereyou can make modifications
(24:36):
across the whole project, xyz,whatever.
That's too much.
You know.
You hear, like, how do you eatan elephant?
One bite at a time?
You know, eat the frog.
You know, tackle that thingthat you really don't want to do
in that day.
But there is a strategy tomaking things stick, to making
things lead to adoption.
(24:57):
That strategy is not launchinga big project.
You need to have incrementalchanges.
So we had to change the behavior, not just the platforms that
they were using, but thebehavior of the program managers
, in order to allow their workto become more efficient, in
(25:20):
order to allow for thosereporting and those portfolio
roll-up dashboards.
So this was an opportunity thatspanned many months.
We did multiple projects as apart of this bigger initiative
and we are starting to see notjust the adoption from the teams
(25:43):
.
We're seeing adoption fromleadership, from middle manager,
from cross-functional leads.
They're excited because theyknow where things are.
They recognize that everybodyis aware of those processes, of
what to do, of where to go, ofhow to find it, of what the
(26:04):
context is, because you start tobring those pieces together and
, as that happens, you start toget more curiosity.
And I think that curiosity isreally what opens the door to
collaborations in yourorganization to expand that
footprint and expand thattransfer of knowledge.
(26:26):
That's not just word of mouth,there's actually something to
ground and connect and createthe context for where your
portfolio is.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Right, and you end up speaking the same language.
The point here is that, you know, having visibility to the
things that are being donetowards some sort of goal, I
think just increases thecredibility and even the
validity of the work that isbeing committed to certain
initiatives.
Right, because oftentimes Ithink there's so many different
(26:58):
ways to communicate how a statusis for a certain project or a
task and people spend so muchtime just providing updates and
not actually doing actual work.
And so establishing thevisibility and that dashboard,
whatever you want to call it, Ithink allows for not only better
(27:19):
discussions around what weshould do next, but overall, I
think decision-making starts tochange.
Right, you start to have theseconversations that are much more
geared towards, okay, what'sreally going to change?
The way that the company isgrowing or the way that the
group is going, right?
So I'm curious in that examplethat you provided, is there a
(27:41):
very, let's say, simpleframework that you used in
developing that?
Right, because I think, at facevalue, you can say, okay, yeah,
we talked to like 30 people andwe created all these things and
it can get.
These things can take a lot oftime, but I think the point
you're making is like thesnowball example right, you
start with just a piece of it,just talk to whoever it is that
(28:05):
is receiving the informationthat you're providing.
Where's the value creation?
Right, and then start to buildblocks out of that and then it
becomes something else.
But how do you even begin withcreating that first initial
piece of this snowball thatyou're going to create?
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Right, you got to find out like where's the snow,
where's the snow, where's thesnow?
That can help me build this out.
So I think, really, theframework that we utilized that
we did was you know, we talkedto our client sponsor, asked
what their concerns were, whatthey struggled with, and then we
had those conversations withthe team at the ground level.
(28:45):
Okay, now we know where this isgoing.
So, in this sense, we focusedmore on the roles and
responsibilities of a givenfunction, so we recognize that
we were able to have a littlebit more influence in our direct
teams.
Now here's the thing A lot offolks don't want to really have
(29:06):
these conversations untilthey're ready to show something
big Part of our delivery, partof how I deliver.
This is really understanding.
Okay, let's find out where yourproblem is.
What's the biggest problemthat's troubling you right now?
Well, we don't have an abilityto create updates the way we
need to.
When we do them manually, ittakes us about two hours to
(29:29):
collate all the information.
Okay, so let's start first.
What information do you haveaccess to, what information
comes from other people?
Because then you have torecognize now what is the input
into your system and what is theoutput of your system, and your
system can be your function oryour department or your
(29:50):
particular role on a project.
Once you start to understandthat, you can then start to make
changes in your space.
I personally choose toexperiment in my own work and
then, once I find somethingthat's valid, I start talking
with folks, I start presenting alittle bit more and I don't
(30:13):
mean formal presentations Istart informing them.
These are the things that Ihave figured out how to do.
Hey, you know that one problemwe had yesterday where they
didn't really have visibilityinto what the status was or the
upcoming dates for et cetera.
Let me show you something thatI did and that starts the
(30:33):
conversation.
Whether or not they decide toadopt something similar, it's
irrelevant.
You need to have exposure tothese changes in order for them
to take off.
You talking to somebody onetime about something you did
it's going to disappear.
They're busy.
You need to have thisconsistent messaging of I want
things to be better and really,the way that we carry this out
(30:57):
is to make sure that we're notadding additional layers of work
.
We are going to decrease theamount of effort that you're
doing right now on the same workthat you're doing.
Once we can manage that, thenwe can start looking at other
initiatives.
Well, now we have more time thanwe can plan for this.
We can have more time toexperiment.
We can have more time to think,time to think.
(31:19):
Imagine that Going to work tothink we're not being paid for
the tasks, we're being paid forour experience, our knowledge,
our strategy.
But we rarely have time to dothose things.
So, you know, we go in there,we understand.
What are these low-hanging fruitthat will start to change how
(31:40):
we work, start to improve thetransparency, improve the
visibility and what this alsodoes, lawrence.
It starts to create a system ofaccountability.
Gone are the days where peoplecan send you a message as a
project manager myself in thosedays.
Oscar, can you give me the listof nope?
(32:03):
Here's the link to it.
It is time to be accountablefor your own work.
I'm going to provide all theinformation.
I'm going to show you where itis.
Here's how it rolls up.
This is now taking charge ofyour role and putting
accountability on the projectteams.
You need to be able to pullthese out and make the
(32:25):
conclusions as well.
Find the next step.
So, really working within yourfunction, within the work that
you're doing, I would say isprobably the easiest and
probably the quickest way to getsmall change to happen, and it
could be small change from.
Well, I have to send everymonth.
(32:46):
I have to send out a new reportabout something.
Look at what you're doing, findthe systems that you're using
and see if there's a way toautomate a delivery of a report
monthly.
If it's tracking the work thatyou're doing, then it's just you
working every day and thenevery month you get a report.
We just had one that got sentout and I got a reply back email
(33:06):
that asked to add three morepeople.
This isn't even the finalversion, but they're already
finding value.
They're like, hey, can we addthese people?
I think they could use this tounderstand what is about to come
into my space, what is on theway.
When you create these systems,you're no longer surprised what
(33:28):
we got another project, what wegot another initiative.
You see all of it Right.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
You're essentially reestablishing what the norm
should be right and I think, tokind of recap you know a couple
of things that we just discussedis, I think this really centers
around really getting to knowwhat people are doing that they
shouldn't be doing anymore ormaybe they find annoying or
inefficient, right.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Really getting a sense of what's going on right.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
And then, once you do that right, you can start to
craft a plan to really tacklethe small things.
It's just to start out and thenyou create momentum, and I
think the important thing hereis to really make sure that, if
others are planning to do thesame thing, that you guys use a
very similar framework in howyou establish these initiatives
to change throughout yourcompany.
(34:15):
Away from this episode, whatshould it be?
But I think I'm going to saywhat's the one thing people
should not be doing if they arelooking to change some of these
inefficient ways of working attheir companies.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
One thing to not do is everybody else's work.
I think at times when you aredeveloping efficiencies, when
you're finding new ways aroundthings, you become sort of this
jack of all trades, master ofnone, and you start to get
pulled into these like sidequests, which they can be
beneficial, but it should notimpede on the work that you are
(35:00):
required to do as your role, arerequired to do as your role.
You know the other part that Iwould probably say too.
I tend to keep leaders in thedark because the higher you go
up, the quicker it'll be to geta no, because the level of
conversation has to be differentwhen you go higher up.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah, when you go higher up.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You sort of need to present something and say we did
this and this is the changethat had happened.
If you go up to a leader, to aco-founder I actually saw this
recent with somebody close to methey said I have a big plan and
I asked them like well, do youknow what that leader is
concerned about?
Do you know what they reallycare about?
(35:46):
They went to have theconversation and it got squashed
right away because they didn'tsee the value.
I had five conversations withthis person.
I see the value now, but havingjust one conversation with
nothing to notice nothing, toshow nothing to, I do not do
that.
(36:06):
I think the thing that has mademe successful in doing
organizational, doing any change, is that I'm going to do the
change as a part of my work I'mgoing to find, because if the
organization does not want youto improve a process, you should
not be working at thatorganization.
So you have every right to lookat the work that you're doing
and say how can not be workingat that organization.
So you have every right to lookat the work that you're doing
(36:27):
and say how can I be better,make that part of your work,
make that a goal, even so, thatit is there in writing and find
something.
Find something, buildprototypes of it, whether or not
.
I mean it can be as simple ashey.
I built a new template for thatPowerPoint slide that we're
constantly doing, and I createdheaders and links inside of it
(36:52):
so that you can go back andforth like a document.
There's so many things inPowerPoint that people just
inherently do not do, becausetheir quote unquote experience
is just dragging and droppingand formatting font.
Unquote experience is justdragging and dropping and
formatting font.
That's not expertise inPowerPoint, sorry.
(37:13):
So you know, get somethingtogether.
Talk to your manager about it.
Tell them that you're reallykeen on fixing something.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, I think there's definitely starting with the
mindset first is kind of thefoundation, and I was gonna.
I was gonna say the exact samething, but I will not steal your
answer and I will say, um, thatthe next important thing is to
not assume that the tools thatyou've been using will get you
to where you need to be right.
So I think this is like reallytrue in the last couple years,
(37:40):
when we've seen the emergence ofall of the large language
models and like ChatGPT, claudeGemini, you know, there's
Copilot, all of these differenttools that you can apply to your
work, but you need to know howto do that right, and so there's
a bit of experimenting that youhave to do, obviously, to
(38:02):
figure out you know what theright fit is for your workflow,
but there are just so many othertools, like Smartsheet,
mondaycom, all these differenttools that are really going to
accelerate not only theefficiency but also the
effectiveness of what you'redoing right.
And so if you're just usingOutlook, excel, powerpoint,
(38:23):
sharepoint and just the verysurface level features of those
tools, it will not allow you tonot only perform to what the
upper management, c-levelexecutives, are capable of, but
it's really going to constrainyou in what you can do
creatively right.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You're not going to grow.
You won't grow.
You're not going to grow.
Yeah, creatively right, You'renot going to grow.
You won't grow.
You're not going to grow.
Yeah, If I could say anything,if your organization is going to
provide training I don't careif it's for PowerPoint or
SharePoint you should go atleast once.
If you think you know, go, Findout what they're doing this.
(39:02):
And if you're an organizationthat doesn't provide training,
shame on you.
You should not go in there.
This is why you get multipleskill levels with the same piece
of equipment, with the samesoftware that you're using
across the company.
If this is so vital to yourorganization, it is your
responsibility to provide somelayer of training to ensure a
(39:26):
consistent baseline of youremployee.
And I'll stop there so I don'tmake anybody too mad.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
No, I think this was a great discussion and just for
a preview for our next episode.
So we're going to kind ofcontinue down this road of
(40:03):
discussing the approach veryhard on for the last I don't
know how many weeks, but theBiopharma Nexus model, and
you'll see a lot of content thathe's put out on LinkedIn, but
also on his sub stack as well.
So we'll be diving into that inmore detail on the next episode
and, yeah, it's going to be avery uh, I think, in-depth
(40:25):
conversation of how you seepieces of the puzzle coming
together, especially fororganizations that have so many
different levers, and what theyhave to do to accomplish what
their strategy is yeah, andsometimes that's the hardest
thing is looking beyond thoseand and breaking down an
organization to say how is thisorganization the same as any
(40:49):
other organization?
Speaker 1 (40:50):
What are they missing , what are they lacking, what do
they do?
Well, I'm excited for thatconversation, Lawrence, and
thanks everybody for stickingwith us and being part of this
journey.
We're going to continue tocrank out episodes through the
rest of this year and if you areinterested in sponsoring, if
you're sponsoring an episode, ifyou're interested on being a
(41:11):
guest on the show we have anumber of folks that have
reached out to us so we are inthe process of scheduling those
Send us an email at leanbydesignat sigmalabconsultingcom.
We'll also put some things inthe show notes so that you have
access to those.
It can really start to look athow can we, how can you start to
(41:33):
make a change in yourorganization and if, Lawrence
I'm going to add this otherpiece here we have updated our
assessments to help you assessyour organization.
It's a simple quiz withpowerful results and something
that you can take to your leaderto say hey, I think we can
(41:53):
start doing a couple of thesethings.
So we'll put those in the shownotes.
Lawrence, thanks for your time.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Yeah, see you guys next time.
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