We’re data nerds. Our healthy obsession with analyzing and improving processes within remediation portfolios is always leading us to ask bigger and better questions of ourselves and our clients. One recent question is: How do you discern between spending time and wasting time?
Take the following scenario to illustrate the crux of it: Brett must dig a 10-foot hole. His brow is furrowed and he is determined. Armed with a hand spade, he spends 6 hours laboring away before he succeeds. Surely, one wouldn't consider those 6 hours wasted - after all, the job is done! But... what if hidden in the shade a few meters away there was a heavy duty shovel that could complete that 6-hour job in half the time? Should those last 3 hours that Brett spent laboring now be considered wasted time?
The moment we discover a more efficient way to operate, the previous "best option" becomes cast in a new context. With the blazing speed that technology advances, spending time can BECOME wasting time, all without us even knowing it.
In the environmental remediation field, this happens all of the time. We see teams that are using the same remediation project management tools (*cough* spreadsheets) as they did a decade earlier. The result is missed deadlines, cost-overrun and conflicting information.
We get it. Sometime the notion of chasing peak performance can almost feel like a burden, forcing us to be constantly up-to-date and re-evaluating our processes. The result is that we become comfortable with a level of acceptable inefficiencies and say “well, that’s optimized enough for now." But, then what? How to avoid stagnancy?
Maybe a more important question is: How can remediation teams know when it's time to assess their project management tools in a traditionally tech-laggard industry?
We believe the answer lies in a periodic, honest revaluation of your tools, strategies and practices. Facing the sometimes-unappealing notion of change and seeing what's out there. Not knowing what you don’t know, you can never truly guarantee that the way you decide to go about completing the task is the *absolute* optimal way. What you CAN do is take the time and increase your awareness of the available tools at your disposal.
Curious to see how our enterprise remediation management solution can save your company money, time and headaches?
Check out our featured whitepaper A Case For The Enterprise Environmental Liability Management System or simply book a non-pushy 15-minute call with us and we can find out if ENFOS is a good fit.
