Parkinson’s Law states, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
If you asked almost anyone whether they do work that adds no value, most would say no. But ask them to identify which specific tasks are non-value-added, and many would struggle.
The problem is that waste often hides in routines. We keep doing things because we’ve always done them that way, not because they are necessary.
One way to expose that waste is through forcing functions.
A forcing function is a limitation you intentionally place on a process to force yourself to find a different way of accomplishing it. The limitation is often unrealistic, but that is the point. It pushes you to think about the work from a completely different angle.
For example:
How would you complete an entire week’s worth of work if you only had four hours available?
It is an absurd question, but answering it forces you to prioritize. What would you stop doing? What would you automate, delegate, or eliminate entirely? Which meetings would suddenly become optional?
The goal is not to actually compress forty hours of work into four. The goal is to uncover the activities that are consuming time without creating much value.
Examples of forcing functions include:
- Short, non-negotiable deadlines
- An upcoming vacation
- Artificial time limits
- Asking an outsider how they would perform the process
- Temporarily removing yourself as the bottleneck
A personal example came when a family member experienced a health issue that required me to take significant time away from work. I could no longer be the answer for every problem. The situation forced me to develop my team, document processes, and delegate decisions that I had previously handled myself.
Ironically, the work continued.
Many forcing functions create situations where you initially feel incapable of meeting expectations. But those constraints often surface ideas that eliminate waste, simplify processes, and make the system stronger.
Sometimes the best way to improve a process is not to ask, “How can we do this better?”
It is to ask, “How would we do this if we had half the time?”