How to tame your killer ducklings.

This will make you cleverer, and lazier, some say wiser!

I gave a new client homework this week.

• Find a duckling. Don’t fix it. Make it less bad.

Some background first. Their business is bottlenecked. Too much work, not enough money. Because they’re rushed, they cut corners without meaning to. The cut corners come back to bite them, and waste a load of capacity. That wasted capacity might be what bottlenecks them - we shall see.

I call these little problems “ducklings” - because it feels like the business is being nibbled to death by ducklings.

So back to the homework.

• Find a duckling. Don’t fix it. Just make it less bad. Maybe 10%, maybe 30%. Don’t try too hard.

It’s almost always waaaayyyyy easier to make something less bad than to fix it. And half as bad is usually more than good enough. Once something is good enough, there’s no need to keep making it better - move on.

Now imagine the homework becomes an ingrained habit.

You start noticing patterns. You get better at making things less bad. Your problem-noticing and problem-solving skills grow - they’re like muscles that grow when exercised. And pretty soon, you claw back enough capacity that you stop making ducklings in the first place.

Hope that helps.

If you’d like to discuss working together, email me at clarke@clarkeching.com. Hitting reply works.

Cheers for now, my friend,

Clarke

p.s. Find a duckling. Don’t fix it. Just make it less bad.

p.p.s. Thanks so much to everyone who’s tested my AI bottleneck detective prompt. The results have blown me away. I’m going to release it very soon. Leave a little dent in the universe, maybe.