Efficiency and Continued Pursuit of Knowledge

Had a discussion at the office today regarding my techniques for success. After pondering how I've achieved the successes in my life, I determined that the best answer was by striving for improved efficiency in everything that I did and by never stopping my pursuit for knowledge.

It is my belief that an office runs better when each employee strives for greater efficiency in their actions because it limits the extra work that comes with correcting mistakes.

Just as fixing a leaky faucet will reduce the amount of money you spend on your water bill, improving your efficiency will reduce the amount of extra work you have to complete. It's common sense, and yet people are so unwilling to accept that their failures are partially due to their own inefficiency and are instead very quick to dump the blame on others.

Especially in businesses where many people could be charged with handling a specific client's account, success depends on the efficiency of everyone involved. Just as a client must efficiently communicate what they want, each person receiving this information must effectively relay that information forward. Paradigms must be followed to ensure that the client's desires and expectations are satisfied and met. Rather than shying away from the blame if a mistake occurs, admit it so you can address the mistake and move forward.

Trust me when I say that clients will appreciate hearing "You know what, I'm not quite sure of the answer, but I know someone who definitely knows the answer. May I contact them so we can handle your request as quickly and efficiently as possible?" far more so than hearing "You know that document I've had you sign three times in the last month and a half? Well, I'm going to need you to sign it a fourth time, some idiot from *insert a fake department to avoid blame* didn't get it processed properly and we need to send it through again." It's even better when you've finished finding the answer and assisting the client if you thank them for giving you an opportunity to learn something you hadn't known before. This leads me to the next technique towards achieving success: continued pursuit of knowledge.

Continued education doesn't mean signing up for every corporate seminar you can fit in your docket, only to arrive to every single one half-asleep and incapable of implementing what you've learned. No, this simply means finding answers on a daily basis to things that you may not have known--whether work-related or not.

The interesting thing about my college's broad liberal arts curriculum was that I gained an understanding of many topics. This didn't necessarily prepare me for my career, but the process of learning and seeking information did give me a leg up on many other people in terms of adapting my skills to a given task or goal.

The best thing about learning is gaining just a little bit more to our knowledge base while expanding our problem solving skills. As we learn how to crawl, we begin to determine that walking is more efficient, and running even more efficient. If we didn't continue to learn, we would never advance in our lives and we would lead very miserable lives. In terms of how this yields successes in one's work life, constant learning creates pathways in our minds that enable us to understand more and more scenarios with which we might be presented. Continued pursuit of knowledge will also give us greater creativity--whether tangible or simply intuitive. Expanded knowledge can also strengthen our personalities, as we become more and more varied individuals. Of course, this also makes us more capable of relating to a larger number of the people whom we might encounter on a daily basis.