Are you Making it Easy?
One of the ideas in James Clear’s excellent book ‘Atomic Habits‘ is the importance of what he refers to as the Law of Least Effort. His focus is personal behavior change and specifically the idea is that if you want to adopt a new behavior, a new habit, your best bet is to make it easy.
The reason for that is that we are all wired to be inherently lazy (Law of Least Effort) and when we’re confronted with options we have a strong tendency to go with whatever’s easiest. That’s not to say that you can’t and don’t do hard things – obviously that happens all the time, but in general you’ll gravitate towards easier actions if they’re available (or if you’re tired, or if you don’t have much time, or…).
If you’re trying to start working out – pick a gym that’s convenient and easy to get to. If you want to eat healthier, cook larger batches of healthy food and package them in your refrigerator so it’s easy to just pull out a meal’s worth of good stuff. Make it easy to do and it’s a lot more likely to happen.
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The Law of Least Effort and Your Business
This idea of behavior change got me thinking about how this might apply to your business. It’s pretty clear this concept has been implemented by some big names.
- Amazon pioneered (and patented) the idea of 1 Click Buying back in 1999.
- The biggest reason that Uber has been successful is that they made it easy to get a ride.
- Google autocompletes your searches to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.
In today’s world, time is of the essence and people (your potential customers) don’t have the time or patience to navigate through a challenging buying process. If you make things difficult, they will go find another option.
When’s the last time you thought about your buying process? Or about how customers interact with you in general? What’s one thing you could change that would make that experience easier for them?
And what about your employees? Are they spending time and effort on things that could be done an easier way? What’s one thing you could implement that would make an internal process easier?
Not sure how to get started with this idea? Pull together your team for a 1 to 2 hour meeting – with a focus either on your customer’s experience or the internal experience. Open the floor and ask for ideas on how things could be easier – then pick one of those ideas and set a plan for implementing it.
Then do it again in a few months – make it a regular thing. I think you’ll be amazed at how much a few changes can improve things.
What do you think? Have you considered how to make things easier? I’d love to hear your thoughts (if it’s not too much effort…). 😉 Leave a comment below.
Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach
