Task Completion: Fast, Cheap or Good?

About a year ago I was chatting away with a fellow business owner about small business mistakes and wisdom, when he offered some wisdom that was passed down to him from another successful business owner. This advice has always stayed with me and provided me with direction when I was hesitating about completing a task. The principle was:

Success in any task can be gauged across three measures:

1. Fast: How quickly the task can be completed
2. Cheap: How inexpensively the task is to complete
3. Good: How ‘on specification’, slick, robust and error free the completed task can be

Of the three measures, you will only be able to achieve success in two. Thankfully, you can choose any combination of two measures, you just can’t achieve success across all three.

 

Confused? Or did you just open the article and scroll straight to the pretty picture? Perhaps you’re even humming a famous Meat Loaf song. Well, whatever thoughts are floating around, let’s take a more in depth examination of the cheap-fast-or-good combinations. There’s only three, so let’s get in to the dangers and when to use each:

Completing Tasks Cheap and Fast

Do you want your task completed as cheaply and quickly as possible? It can be done, but it will be at the expense of being produced as slick and robust as possible. This means that your task could have errors, be incompatible with other work or be delivered inconsistently with your brand.

“It’s not that hard. Just ask someone to do it.” Typical call to arms of the cheap and fast solution

Examples of tasks that are best suited to ‘cheap and fast’ solutions include:

• Tasks that are autonomous, repetitive and require minimal supervision
• Tasks that have been completed by the same person or supplier previously
• Tasks that you are familiar with and can therefore step in to change or provide direction

 

Completing Tasks Fast and Good

Yeah ok, the title of this section isn’t great English, but you know what I mean. Everyone wants good work done as quickly as possible. It’s only natural. But good work is going to cost you because you will likely need to engage someone with a higher level of skill to get the job finished in a flash. Either that or you’re going to ask someone to drop everything they’re doing to focus on for your OMG-DO-THIS-LIKE-NOW-CMON-SKIP-LUNCH.pdf

“I need it done now. The Client is coming!” Typical call to arms of the fast and good solution

Examples of tasks that are best suited to ‘fast and good’ solutions include:

• Extremely important customer facing problems that have unexpectedly reared their head
• High stakes, time dependent tasks where you have little knowledge of the subject area

 

Completing Tasks Cheap and Good

Yep, my English teachers are still shaking their heads at the poor grammar.

This is the ideal task benefit combination. By taking the time to plan out what is exactly needed and when, you can save yourself a fortune. When planning, understand that the task is going to take longer than expected and build this time buffer into your task plan. The ultimate end result is that the work is delivered inexpensively, on specification and within your allotted time frame.

“I know exactly what I want, and I have a bit of time up my sleeve.” Typical call to arms of the cheap and good solution

Examples of tasks that are best suited to ‘cheap and good’ solutions include:

• When you’ve taken the time to draft the complete specifications needed
• When you know your time frames and are assured that you can comfortably deliver within these times
• When the work is of an ongoing nature and following a tried and tested system
• When you can provide ongoing supervision if needed

So next time you’re assessing your tasks and either want to get them done quickly, cheap or properly take a moment about which two areas you will focus on.

Growing your small business,

David Moloney
sbp.strongerbranch.com