The word automation makes some people uncomfortable.
They hear it and immediately think:
“You're trying to replace someone's job.”
That's not how I look at automation.
I look at the work people do every day and ask:
Which parts actually require a person?
Because your employees have experience.
Judgment.
Creativity.
Relationships.
Problem-solving ability.
Industry knowledge.
Those things are valuable.
Copying information from one system into another?
Probably not the best use of them.
Look at the Work Nobody Thinks About
A few minutes here.
A few minutes there.
Copy this.
Paste that.
Update this spreadsheet.
Send this reminder.
Move this file.
Create this recurring task.
Check whether someone responded.
Calculate this total.
Update this status.
Build this report.
None of these tasks seems particularly expensive.
But add them together.
Suppose an employee spends only 30 minutes every day on repetitive administrative work that could happen automatically.
That's 2.5 hours per week.
Roughly 10 hours per month.
More than 100 hours per year.
Now multiply that across several employees.
Suddenly, those little tasks aren't so little.
Automation Should Start With Repetition
When I look for automation opportunities, I'm interested in things that happen repeatedly.
Every Monday someone creates the same tasks.
Every Friday someone builds the same report.
Every time a lead arrives, someone enters the same information.
Every time a project changes status, someone sends the same notification.
Every time an employee submits information, someone else copies it somewhere.
Those are clues.
The question becomes:
Does someone need to do this, or does it simply need to happen?
There's a difference.
Imagine the System Handling the Routine Parts
A lead enters the system.
The appropriate follow-up date is created.
The employee doesn't have to remember.
A project moves to Ready for Review.
The reviewer is notified.
Nobody has to send a separate message.
A field employee submits their job information.
Their hours are calculated.
The job record is updated.
Management can see it.
A recurring task is due next Monday.
It appears automatically.
A customer hasn't responded.
The follow-up appears on the appropriate person's list.
Nothing revolutionary happened.
That's the point.
The routine work simply happened without someone having to think about it.
That's Where Employees Get Time Back
Automation isn't valuable because computers are exciting.
It's valuable because people get time back.
Time to talk to customers.
Time to solve problems.
Time to manage employees.
Time to work on projects.
Time to sell.
Time to improve the company.
Time to do the work you actually hired them to do.
Don't Automate Everything
There are plenty of things I wouldn't automate.
Sensitive customer conversations.
Decisions requiring experience.
Exceptions that need judgment.
Relationship building.
Complex approvals.
Anything where a human needs to look at the situation and determine the right response.
The goal isn't:
How much can we automate?
The goal is:
Where does automation actually improve the operation?
Fix the Process Before You Automate It
This is worth repeating.
Don't automate a bad process.
If employees are entering unnecessary information, don't automate moving that unnecessary information somewhere else.
Ask whether the information is needed first.
If three approvals exist but only one actually provides value, don't automate all three.
Remove two.
Then automate what's left if it makes sense.
Simplify first. Automate second.
Start With One Hour
Here's an exercise.
Ask each person on your team:
“What repetitive task takes at least an hour of your time every week?”
Write down the answers.
Don't immediately buy software.
Don't immediately automate them.
Look at the process.
Why does the task exist?
Does it still need to happen?
Could it be simplified?
Could information flow differently?
Could your existing systems handle it?
Could it happen automatically?
You may discover dozens of hours of capacity hiding inside the work your team already does.
