How to Handle “No-brainers”

How many times have you been in a meeting at your company when an idea comes up and someone says “that’s a no-brainer!”

A no-brainer implies such a completely obvious solution to a problem that it only needs to be implemented and all of the benefits will be realized. To reference another management buzzword, a no-brainer is similar to the proverbial low-hanging fruit – so easy to get that one must simply reach out and grab it.

Here’s the problem with “no-brainers” – if the solution really were that easy, wouldn’t you have done it already? I will admit that sometimes a true no-brainer does emerge, especially if new perspective can shed light on a problem in a new way.

But think about the literal implication of no-brainer – your brain is actually not required. Hmmm.

Perhaps you have identified a no-brainer and then started to implement it – only to discover that the solution is not, in fact, as easy as you originally thought. Why? You discover interdependencies or unintended consequences that cascade or ripple throughout your business system. See? The no-brainer was not as easy as you originally thought.

 

So now you have discovered that the no-brainer is what?

A brainer!

Brainers require real thinking. Just about any idea to significantly improve your business is a brainer. Why?

Because true improvement will potentially require a new business model, new workflow, new roles, new contractual relationships, new talent, new systems. These are all interconnected and interdependent. Brainers have big implications, uncertainties, and system-wide consequences.

Here are two real examples of policy changes which appear on the surface to be “no-brainers”. Both are intended to expand current working capital and to improve efficiency.

No-brainer #1: Let’s notify all of our suppliers that we are going to extend our payment terms to net 60. Instead of paying them in 30 days, or under whatever terms we agreed to, we will just notify them of this policy change. What an easy and obvious way to free up working capital!

No-brainer # 2: Let’s change our IT system so that we process invoices only on the fifteenth or thirtieth of the month. This will improve our efficiency! This approach is also a backdoor way of extending our payment terms to our suppliers. If they issue an invoice on the sixteenth of the month, net 30, and we now pay it on the thirtieth, we can batch our checks. Voila! Now we’ve effectively extended our terms from 30 days to almost 45 days!

So what’s the problem with these policy changes?

• First, they ripple throughout the company’s supply ecosystem. Rather than creating a win-win, they create a win-lose. You have merely pushed a working capital problem to your supplier.

• Second, they break an agreement. When you agreed to purchase from your suppliers, terms were part of price. In the first example, when you notify suppliers of the new terms policy, they can then decide whether or not to supply you under those new terms. However, when you implement an IT system change that effectively changes the terms in practice, you have not allowed the supplier to participate in this decision. This arbitrary change can impact on your trust and credibility with your suppliers.

• Third, a win-win supply relationship is long term and is based on joint innovation. When you squeeze your suppliers, will they invest their time and energy in bringing their best ideas to you in the future – or to their other customers? You just shifted a trusted, collaborative relationship to a transactional one.

I used these examples because often the implications of a “no-brainer” reside outside of your company’s walls – but these unintended consequences will eventually come back to bite you.

There are many other examples of apparent no-brainers that turn out to be brainers:

• Changing your sales compensation system to shift incentives – without thinking through the connection to your strategy, impact on your channel partners, and how this change may create unintended consequences for your customers. Or thinking that an incentive change is all that is required – without considering whether the sales force has the right sales skills for how you go to market.

• Moving a person who is not performing in their current role. Seems easy to just move them to another part of the organization. The brainer? Do you really understand why they aren’t performing in their current role? Is it them – or could it be the structure, system, or manager they work for? Will they be successful under the structure, system, or manager they are going to?

So how can you deal with no-brainers when they arise? Here are a few ideas:

• First, create awareness that often a no-brainer is really a brainer. As the leader, you typically (or hopefully) have a systems perspective that individuals may not have – it is up to you to educate your people about the system-wide effects. You want to strike the right tone also – so you can help people to see what they do not see – without inadvertently insulting them for not seeing it. Just naming the phenomenon of “no-brainers” can give you and your team permission to name it, then step back and examine if the issue is perhaps a brainer and give it appropriate attention.

• When a no-brainer comes up, it is often in the form of a solution. Make sure you have clearly defined the problem – and the criteria for a good solution. A good solution is one that reduces working capital without negatively impacting our trusted supplier relationships. Shift the conversation to how we can accomplish that goal.

Finally, recognize that the issues that you and your leadership team are dealing with are almost always brainers. If they weren’t, why do you need to be there? Create an environment and culture in your leadership team where you focus your time and energy on the big brainers facing the future of your organization.