Organizations Maximize Individual Potential

I believe that in an organization, it is important to maximize the potential of each individual. I would like to take this opportunity to re-examine "economic staffing," a fundamental concept that supports this way of thinking.

What is economic staffing?

Economic staffing is a method or concept for optimizing personnel allocation and labor within an organization from an economic perspective.

Let's consider a concrete example. Suppose there are three people:
Person A with sales ability 9, administrative ability 8, and new product development ability 6;
Person B with sales ability 4, administrative ability 9, and new product development ability 3;
Person C with sales ability 3, administrative ability 4, and new product development ability 7.

In economic staffing, to leverage each person's strengths,
by having Person A specialize in sales,
Person B specialize in administrative work,
and Person C specialize in new product development,
productivity can be improved. In other words, efficiency increases when each individual focuses on their area of expertise.

Also, suppose the total ability scores for each person are 23 for A, 16 for B, and 14 for C. If total scores are related to wages, forming a three-person team by adding B and C, who have strengths specialized in different fields, is more effective at keeping total wages down than gathering three people with high overall ability scores.

Economic staffing is a method to optimize organizational resources and improve productivity and efficiency. By considering the characteristics and abilities of individual talent and performing optimal role allocation, the overall results of the organization can be maximized.

Focusing on the relative strengths of members

Organizations are built on the mechanisms of "division of labor" and "coordination." Understanding this concept allows you to leverage the individual abilities of members and improve the overall results of the team.

However, if this concept is not understood, a leader may end up placing an undue burden on their members.

Some inexperienced managers try to build a team based on their own abilities. When they perform a "division of labor" among team members, they simply think about distributing tasks equally and placing staff in each process. However, inexperienced staff find it difficult to think at the same level as a manager, and as a result, they cannot achieve sufficient results. For such subordinates, their managers judge that they are not producing results, and when they see subordinates who are inferior to their own abilities, they tend to think of them as "useless" and abandon them. This attitude among managers is often seen in the field.

In the previous example,
Person A with sales ability 9, administrative ability 8, and new product development ability 6;
Person B with sales ability 4, administrative ability 9, and new product development ability 3;
Person C with sales ability 3, administrative ability 4, and new product development ability 7;
if Person A becomes the manager and, as a playing manager, takes on both sales and administrative tasks while also demanding both sales and administrative work from subordinates B and C, this is a case where they decide that "B and C are useless subordinates with no sales ability" and sometimes discard them.

An organizational leader must prepare several patterns for the division of labor and, based on the current capabilities of the team members, consider which division of labor pattern will yield the best results, thinking about "how to win with the cards in hand."

"If only the cards in my hand were stronger, I could win." A leader who thinks this way is failing to look at the potential of the organization and the individual.

Considering development as a set within the timeline

It is also possible to have members achieve results in areas where they can become an immediate asset in the short term, while simultaneously conducting training to increase their overall capabilities.

In the previous case:
Person A with sales ability 9, administrative ability 8, and new product development ability 6;
Person B with sales ability 4, administrative ability 9, and new product development ability 3;
Person C with sales ability 3, administrative ability 4, and new product development ability 7;
if the person with the relatively higher ability in each field performs the main tasks while setting the tasks they want to develop as sub-tasks for training, it is possible to increase the team's overall strength without compromising organizational results.

Regarding Person B, by having them demonstrate their strengths in administrative work first while providing training to strengthen their sales ability, the variations for the division of labor increase as more members are added.

Thinking about patterns for the division of labor

To create an organization that maximizes individual strengths, it is necessary to clarify the flow of work and prepare multiple options for how work can be divided. When an organization is growing, new tasks increase, so various methods of division of labor increase, making it easier for individuals to demonstrate their strengths in their areas of expertise. However, when an organization is not growing, adjusting the division of labor means reviewing existing task assignments, so opposition from staff who do not feel the need for change is expected. First, have an image of business growth and grow the business. After that, without being bound by existing division of labor patterns, it is required to verbalize the flow of work, including how to think about division of labor patterns, including the training of new employees.

Tips for division of labor patterns

One common pattern for division of labor is to establish a support department.
For example, by creating a sales support department related to the sales department, the following can be achieved.

• Increasing customer touchpoints by streamlining appointments

• Improving closing rates through the standardization of sales materials and proposals

• Post-closing support through standardized customer follow-ups

Through these initiatives, improvements in the productivity of sales functions can be expected.
It is also possible to build a system where sales support staff gain experience and step up to become sales staff in the future.
It is important for an organization to produce results where necessary functions and individual strengths overlap. This realizes organizational management that maximizes individual potential.

It is important to consider how to divide labor, promote growth over time, and improve the performance of the entire organization.
The goal is to practice the concept of economic staffing and build an organization that achieves sustainable growth.