The surprising truth is that progress often comes from subtraction, not addition. Two simple, repeatable routines changed the dynamic for that team: Offload and Talent Mapping & Activating. Both are low‑friction, high‑impact habits that free capacity and focus without asking people to work harder. 

OFFLOAD, to start stopping faster.

Three key areas where you can free-up capacity and reduce significant waste of scarce human resources.

1. The number of running projects & initiatives in the organizations. First step is to check which initiatives are hardly making any progress. Often a clear sign that it isn’t perceived as a mission critical initiative or team members lost trust that it will be finished anyway. A recent finding in a biotech company was that 7 out of 22 initiatives were identified as unfinished business, without any drive to move it forward. By applying the two-way-door decision (meaning you can reverse the decision overnight) they were stopped.

   
   

2. Ineffective collaboration. The usual suspects are there for sure, like meetings with no clear objective, too many participants and open endings, to name a few. And many communication channels, often with personal preferences by individuals, leading to a lot of miscommunication and waste of time to search for information, when a clear agreement is missing on what channel should be used for what type of communication.

   But what I see the most in Pharma and biotech companies is the excessive amount of data and information shared in cross functional meetings. And if there hasn’t been agreed on ‘how do we collaborate and what’s the scope (clarity needed) ‘, the result of these dozens of slides packed with information, create a freezone, where different people of different functions just pick their own preferences. Resulting in a non-stop ask for priority setting and reprioritizing. The following principles will create an engaging and productive collaboration.

   • Shared measurable goals

   • Clear roles, responsibilities and decision making

   • How do we work together (meetings/messages/filing etc.)

   • Encourage safety and trust by asking feedback and sharing what went wrong and key learning for the team.

   • Share success (steps)

   
   

3. Needless complexity. Again, there are endless examples in knowledge intense organizations, Examples of needless complexity are people trying to create an approach for something or a solution for a challenge without first checking if there are colleagues working in another country if they already dealt with it. Simply first asking yourself, who could have faced a similar situation and can help me setting up the same approach instead of coming up with a different approach (leading to different approaches for the same kind of challenge.

But most needless complexity has a very simple reason, if you put enough smart people in the room, anything you discuss will become more (and often not needed) complex.

People by nature have the tendency to add things much more than to subtract.

So, start asking with any solution or approach, first what can we subtract instead of what should be added! 

Talent mapping & matching

Teams are often unaware of the full range of skills, knowledge, and abilities within their own ranks. As a result, valuable talent goes untapped—often at the very moment it’s most needed, I discovered a simple, three-step exercise that include:

• 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Team members list their strengths, acknowledging talents they might take for granted.

• 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗜𝗻𝗽𝘂𝘁: Colleagues provide additional perspectives on each other's strengths, fostering trust and appreciation.

• 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀: Assigning tasks and challenging based on talents and strengths rather than job titles, dynamically redefining roles.

To unlock your team’s hidden potential, schedule a dedicated meeting to surface the full capabilities on your team. Give each person 10 minutes to reflect and write down their talents and skills. Then, ask everyone to share their list aloud. As they do, encourage colleagues to add strengths they’ve observed that weren’t mentioned.

This straightforward exercise is consistently eye-opening. It can reveal hidden strengths, help This exercise builds trust within the team and fuels collaboration. One remarkable, unexpected outcome I discovered was:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 (the introverted and modest team members) often receive the most additions from their colleagues, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 they didn’t recognize in themselves (or simply took for granted).