Most people wouldn’t even notice if it were gone

One of my friends is an event planner.

His staff runs post mortems the day after each celebration, capturing things that went right and wrong, recognizing team wins and refining best practices for future events.

There’s a question they ask each other that’s quite powerful, and it goes like this.

What took a lot of work that most people wouldn’t even notice if it were gone?

It’s perfect for an event company, but it’s also useful for any business who wants to steer clear of high effort low reward mirages.

That’s one way we can uncover sources or inhibitors of leverage. Because unnecessary labor intensity is the easiest way to drain limited resources. It’s one thing if putting in a ton of work pays dividends to reconcile your effort, but if none of your customers or coworkers would even miss that if it were gone, then it’s probably not the smartest use of energy.

It’s just weighing the team down, which distracts us all from attending to where we really can have an impact.

The force we have to contend with is ego. It’s the part of our brain that convinces us certain things have more importance and influence than they actually do.

Reminds me of my early years public speaking. I would spend hours and hours of time writing, printing and distributing handouts to audience members.

Because in my mind, that was the valued add. People wouldn’t like and trust me if there wasn’t a beautifully crafted worksheet waiting on their chair.

And yet, after every one of my presentations was over, most people not only didn’t take a single note on their handout, but left their papers on chairs after they exited the room. They didn’t want my crappy handouts about the content of my speech, they wanted an authentic connection during the speech.

Turns out, my leverage came in the form of interaction, not information.

I never printed another handout again. And as you might guess, nobody put up a fuss. Hell, nobody even noticed. We were all secretly relieved, myself include. It was just another high effort low reward mirage.

My challenge to you, set your ego aside. Figure out what takes a lot of work that most people wouldn’t even notice if it were gone.

Free yourself from involvements that seem necessary. It feels like losing fifty pounds of psychic weight.

What if, instead of walking faster, your carried less in your pack on the trail, and then run?