Ask Christa! How Do I Do More with Less?? (S2E22)

Hi everyone and welcome to Ask Christa! the place where you can ask questions about how to work through business challenges and workplace issues. I'm Christa Dhimo and today’s listener question is one we’ve all grappled with—it’s about being asked to do more with less. Here it is:

“I’m a first time manager. I’ve been managing my team for three years now, and each year I’m asked to do more with less—and that’s a direct quote. I feel like my company has developed a habit to reduce time and resources so much, that it’s becoming difficult to do my job well. 

“I am a manager with 10% of my job allocated to management issues, but I’m also a subject matter expert and serve as an individual contributor on a few teams. I am getting tired, and I’m watching my employees show signs of burn out. I’m showing signs of burn out, too. 

“What’s worse is that leadership won’t update some of our tools that would help us actually do MORE. It feels like they keep taking while wanting more. How do we do more with less?”

OK, I’ll say it. “Doing more with less” is a dumb phrase. The original sentiment had merit and was about reducing waste while increasing productivity BECAUSE back in the day when you reduced waste, it was to increase productivity, and as new technologies poured into a corporate setting, such as word processors and even voice mail, it became easier to collaborate, find solutions, and in fact, do more with less: less process, fewer cumbersome steps, shorter or no waiting times.

But in order to take advantage of technology and doing more with less, companies made investments. They even trained their workforce on ways to think more efficiently, collaborate more efficiently, and consider ways of doing things better by utilizing the very resources that could enable a “more with less” operation. 

But these days, doing more with less is often related MORE to the setup and investment of efficient operations, and related LESS to finding large sweeps of what can be reduced or eliminated.

Historically, the “less” was related to wasteful efforts where technology could do a lot of work faster in the workplace—and often times better, too, because of precision or frankly—processing speed. The calculator is faster than the abacus.

And by reducing or eliminating unnecessary steps, businesses saved time and energy to… do… more. There was an upfront investment, but longer term, companies could and would save money, too. Spend less.

But these days, the “less” is often related to austerity measures leading to reduced investment returned to the business, and the MORE remains related to productivity. 

And sure, you can do that short term if an unpredicted risk has occurred—a storm that damaged a production plant, or (what we see a lot these days) strategies that didn’t turn out as expected. When unexpected events occurred that put the strategic plan and overall business at risk, you SHOULD take austerity measures and hold on spending where possible so you can recover the business and keep it going with as little impact as possible to your customers.

Before I go further, let’s talk about the phrase “austerity measures.” 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, austerity means, “the condition of living without unnecessary things and without comfort, with limited money or goods.” 

Taking it a step further, Investopedia has a great article that defines and describes austerity as it relates to a government, which used to be the primary context of the term “austerity” and the phrase “austerity measures.” 

The article focuses on how austerity is a “set of economic policies that a government implements in order to control public sector debt…” where the goal is “to improve a government's financial health.” 

Full disclosure: if you know me you know I recommend Investopedia as a great learning tool a lot because it includes reviewers and fact checkers and also stays up to date. I’ll have the references for the Cambridge Dictionary and the Investopedia article in the show notes.

At any rate, the concept of austerity is to reduce what you have and what you get to the bare minimum so you can save where possible while recovering from a financial hardship. The “while recovering” piece is intended to be a specific amount of time, though—not forever.

What I see happen more often than not is organizations taking “austerity measures” as part of an ongoing strategy. It becomes a way of life, and when austerity is a way of life, you enter into a scarcity mindset, always questioning whether you need investment—again, good in a short timeframe while recovering and resetting. Not great long term. Over time, that mindset reshapes the thinking and behavior of your employees not to save, but to never spend. To chronically conserve with… EVERYTHING.

In the beginning, they can pull together with a mission-driven mindset to help the company out of the high-risk situation, recover, reset, then rebuild and gain a new momentum. At that point, the austerity measures should go away so you can restart investing, innovate, take your company to the next level and brag about how you recovered form unpredicted events OR events that WERE predicted, and your risk plan, which included austerity measures, worked. 

But when austerity is long term, you erode the success factors you need for your business to thrive:

You only ever have understaffed teams that are overcapacity, leading to burn out, mistakes, and a poor leveling of resources; you continue using old technology well past the efficiency mark because an upgrade continues to be “cut,” which most times costs MORE money to keep up with than necessary—in effect, waste; you have equipment that’s no longer fit for use because there’s no big capital investments taking place, and this creates an expense line to offer smaller investments that “bobby-pin and paper-clip fix” the equipment enough to work, but not enough to actually do better work. Equipment also continues to depreciate on your income statement, with accumulations on your balances sheets, and if you manufacture in a highly regulated industry, it’s just a matter of a year or two when you receive a citation on the fitness—or lack of—for your equipment.

In all of those cases, continuing the “less” on investment while keeping expected productivity at the same level (or asking for MORE) becomes problematic, and you can see why.

So to the leaders out there: be careful what you wish for. If doing more with less becomes chronic, your employees WILL adapt, just as you hope they will. And if you think that’s a GOOD thing, it tells me you’re only thinking about the “Less” part without thinking through what “Less” means while hoping your employees somehow do MORE… with Less… forever.

What really happens with long term austerity measures is that as part of adapting, and as part of conserving, your employees will create habits related to tinkering on what is old to keep it running instead of innovating something new. 

They will adjust their energy levels and work quality to protect themselves from burn out instead of having the energy related to free-thinking while imaging bigger, better, bolder ways of working. Chronic austerity measures with no end in sight creates a conservation mindset—a scarcity mindset. And those who have adapted to learn how to do without—if they haven’t left for greener pastures where they can grow and develop, and do better work with an actual budget—learning how to do without rarely allows for big thinking. They’ve adapted to keeping the lights on. Maintaining status quo.

So again, be careful with a “Do more with Less” phrase. It should be specific to a need or a mission, short-term, with a timeline. Rationale should be shared, and an austerity plan tracked so that employees shift to a scarcity mindset—a conservation mindset, but don’t fall into a habit of ONLY working with less. Over time, you will… get less.

By the way, your reputation as an employer will suffer, too. Who wants to work in a company were there’s little or no investment that’s needed while being expected to do more? Glassdoor, Indeed… everyone knows the companies that live in a chronic austerity environment with an expectation to do more with less.

Now, for this listener and perhaps many others in this scenario: what do you do?

First, it’s OK to philosophically disagree with the chronic ask of doing More with Less, so as an employee, take a step back and gain some perspective. You may need help to do that, so who can you talk to outside of your company to help you with perspective? Some fresh ears and fresh eyes will help you identify and loosen the grip of the habits you’ve formed at your workplace. It’s important to open your mind out of scarcity—out of hearing “Do more with Less”, and out of taking the Do more with Less as the only way to work.

There are companies that invest a lot back to their organizations, even while resetting after a recovery. It should be smart spending, but employees shouldn’t have to work long-term without the right tools to do their jobs, or in an environment where they believe a company is out of compliance because the equipment is no longer fit for purpose, or without good benefits, or feeling that they can never spend money—even on their own development that will benefit the company—because of a scarcity mindset resulting from chronic austerity measures. 

Next, look objectively at your team and the team you are in, perhaps a department. If you’ve been habitually constrained, you may now be at a loss for how to continue squeezing juice out of something that you feel has no juice left to give. Is this the case? Do you have nothing left to give by way of Doing more with Less? When it comes to reducing or eliminating wasteful processes, you do hit an inflection point where there’s nothing left to reduce or eliminate without creating risk, or without creating ways to change how the work is done overall. If you believe you are there, it’s time to show that with evidence to your manager. I’m going to include a couple of resources for Lean practices that will help with that.

From there, ask when the austerity measures will wind down and when the organization will begin to invest such that staffing levels are at the right capacity, tools are working properly—whatever the chronic austerity measures—the Do more with Less—culture has eroded such that you believe the “more” isn’t possible without having… more. It might be time to build that case.

Last, be honest with yourself and think about what is best for you. If you determine you’ve hit the point where you simply cannot do more with less, yet you are still being asked to do this—and I’ve worked in a place that operated like that, and we all know ultimately it’s the customer that suffers—and you feel you can no longer thrive in that environment, it’s time to move on.

I’m going to wrap up my thoughts with this, successful companies do not say, year over year, that everyone needs to do more with less. That’s not a strategy; it’s a recipe for a lot of hurt as you starve your business’s ability to grow and place the burden of efficiency squarely and singularly on those doing the work. Sooner or later the engines will slow and then stall, and you’ll either fold up or you’ll need to raise a lot of cash to reset your business properly from a chronic lack of investment to keep it going. If you cannot properly invest in your business, you have a bad business model or strategy or both, and it’s time to reset your business.

Overall, it’s SMART to periodically examine HOW you work and determine HOW you can tighten it up, and it’s SMART to be specific and selective about WHERE you invest your time, energy, and money. And there are a lot of advances in technology and processes that enable us to produce more while using fewer resources. That’s the RIGHT way of doing more with less.

Personally? I think we should just stop saying that completely. Let’s talk about Doing Our Best every day, which includes eliminating anything in the way of that, and focusing on the best possible outcome for our clients and customers.

OK, for your resources:

I’ve included the Cambridge dictionary austerity definition, and I’ve included the Investopedia article I mentioned earlier, too. That article is written by Adam Hayes, updated in June 2023, reviewed by Eric Estevez and fact-checked by Yarilet Perez. It’s called, “Understanding Austerity, Types of Austerity Measures, and Examples.” 

I’ve also included two resources related to Lean Principles. 

The first will introduce you to the Lean Philosophy of reducing or eliminating waste to achieve the best results for your customers, which is, frankly, what makes a business successful—well that, and, running your business well based on a solid business plan and with the stewardship of an effective board… but I digress. 

Lean IS doing more with less SO THAT you can provide the best value to your customer, and this is really where we should start. It also sets a foundation for continually improving and staying fresh with new thinking.

The article is from Forbes, and I selected this instead of a resource specifically on Lean Principles because I want you to learn more about the business value of doing any kind of waste reduction the right way. You can look up Lean Principles and see dozens of organizations talking about the 5 principles, creating pull, value stream mapping, and so on, but from now on when you hear someone say, “Do more with less,” I want you to purify that terrible phrase and put it in the context of Lean Philosophy.

The article was written by Asim Rais Siddiqui, and it’s called, “Lean Philosophy: The Way Of Business That Gave Rise To Industry Giants,” and it was published in January 2021 and updated in April of 2022. It will bring you through the basics of Lean Principles and how they apply to a business, it highlights two great outcomes from Lean, one related to company culture and one related to leadership, and the articles offers examples. 

It's short, very well written, and underscores what Do more with Less is SUPPOSED to be and do for organizations.

The second Lean resource is about DOWNTIME, which is the acronym for the 8 common wastes that Lean addresses, and once you know them, you can start addressing ways to reduce or eliminate waste immediately—even if you aren’t a Lean expert or have never even heard of Lean Principles. They are common sense items, and you can even use the principles in your home! (how about that packed closet that no longer has any space in it?)

The article is from LeanScape, written by Reagan Pannell in January 2025, and offers just the right level of information to learn about DOWNTIME, again, the 8 commons wastes: 

·              Defects

·              Overproduction

·              Waiting

·              Non-Utilized Talent

·              Transportation

·              Inventory

·              Motion and

·              Excess Processing

Since Doing more with Less often targets hiring plans where teams become understaffed and well over their capacity, I included a second article from Forbes called, “20 Strategies to support your team when the company is understaffed.” It’s from their HR Panel, and it’s worth the read.

And it’s a wrap for Episode 22. If YOU’RE interested in submitting your question, go to my show’s website, AskChrista.com, that’s Christa with a C-H, and click on the Submit a Question tab. I’ve been addressing questions about 6 weeks after they are submitted, so if you send me a question, be on the lookout for your episode. 

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I appreciate your support. Thank you. And remember, if you have a business challenge or a workplace issue—Ask Christa!