How to Make Things Faster

Preface

Making things faster is about making things better. Making life better. The faster your tools can work, the more time you have for doing the things you want to be doing. If your tools help you process information, then the faster they work, the better decisions you can make.

Optimizing—whether a computer, or a plow, or anything in between—requires two separate skill sets: one, asking the right questions; and two, of course, answering those questions. Most people who think about optimizing are well aware of this second skill set. Fewer seem aware of the first one. But this first one—the mere act of asking the right questions—is the skill you need to develop first, especially if you’re a leader. You might be surprised at how quickly you’ll be able to learn it.

There’s a problem, though. The questions I’ll teach you to ask are simple. But anyone who’s ever met an inquisitive child knows that simple questions aren’t always easy to answer. For example, the people who look after your company’s computer may know exactly what the system’s CPU utilization looks like at 2:00 p.m. on a given Friday, but they may not be able to answer how long it takes a clerk to enter an order. There’s a mismatch between the answers they’ll want to give and the questions you’ll want to ask. This mismatch itself hides opportunities to make things faster. I’ll teach you how to find them.

Optimizing is often more political than technical. It’s curious, then, that books about optimizing are almost always ...