Have you heard of the Seven Wastes in business? Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing and Defects, known by the TIMWOOD acronym and originally from manufacturing.

The Seven Wastes are activities that a business should eliminate to become more lean, efficient and cost-effective. Maybe we should look at waste in company communications, given that:

👉 86% of executives and employees cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication as a significant cause of workplace failures (Salesforce).

👉 Companies with good communication practices are 4.5x more likely to retain top talent (Forbes).

👉 57% of employees report needing to be given clear directions, which leads to unnecessary stress and delays (Gallup).

Are any of these impacting your company? Luckily, you don’t have to work with TIMWOOD (bet he leaves the office kitchen in a mess too…)

TRANSPORTATION – how are you delivering your business messaging both internally and externally?
✅ Look at leveraging your communication platforms efficiently and in a targeted, memorable way

INVENTORY– are you trying to do too much with overloaded messaging where nothing cuts through?
✅ Aim to speak to your audience directly and with a clear headline message

MOTION – do you have unnecessary layers of approvals which means turnaround is sluggish or a culture of copying in many people into email threads which leads to confused ownership and congested inboxes?
✅ Empower your teams and streamline reporting where possible

WAITING – is there a bottleneck in your approvals process?
✅ Don’t let static process dictate timing to the detriment of the story

OVERPRODUCTION – have you spent enough time refining communications to ensure that it’s targeted where it needs to be most effective?
✅ Less is often more, be specific in your goal

OVERPROCESSING – are your communications team able to run effectively or are they hampered by non-communications specialists inputting into materials or strategy?
✅ Let them have the final edit

DEFECTS – do teams have a clear brief and/or the understanding to enable them to deliver?
✅ Prioritise precise communications to swerve damaging mistakes

Want to tackle TIMWOOD and wage war on waste? We can help with an internal and external business communications audit and forward strategy. Find out more and get in touch.

About Aimée Norman

Successful business interaction is built on clear purpose, clarity of message and confident delivery. We offer strategic internal and external communications expertise, coaching and consultancy and can help on a project, retainer or fractional basis.