Working clean means committing to integrating the Ingredients, or behaviors, of mise-en-place into your life.
1. Working clean with time
- What to know. Planning is the first thought, not an afterthought. Right planning promotes right action, saves time, and unlocks opportunity. Planning entails the scheduling of tasks, which means being honest with time, respecting both your abilities and limitations.
- What to do. Commit to being honest with time. Plan daily. Arranging spaces, perfecting movements
2. Working clean with space and motion
- What to know. Creating ergonomic workspaces means more than making things look pretty. It means setting a place for yourself that allows economy of motion and consumes less physical and mental energy. The less you move, the more effortless your work will be and the more brainpower you can reserve for new work and new thoughts.
- What to do. Commit to setting your station and reducing impediments to your movements and activities. Remove friction. Cleaning as you go.
3. Working clean with systems
- What to know. All systems are useless unless maintained. The real work of an organisation is not being clean, but working clean: keeping that system no matter how fast and furious your pace is. Working clean helps you work faster and better.
- What to do. Commit to maintaining your system. Always be cleaning. Making first moves
4. Working clean with priorities
- What to know. The present moment is worth more than a future one because present action sets processes in motion and unlocks others’ work on your behalf.
- What to do. Commit to using time to your benefit. Start now. Finishing actions
5. Working clean with obligations and expectations
- What to know. A project that is 90% complete is zero% complete because it’s not deliverable. Orphaned tasks create more work.
- What to do. Commit to delivering. When a task is nearly done, finish it. Always be unblocking. Slowing down to speed up
6. Working clean with emotions
- What to know. Precision precedes speed. A calm body can calm the mind.
- What to do. Commit to working smoothly and steadily. Use physical order to restore mental order. Don’t rush. Open eyes and ears
7. Working clean with your senses
- What to know. Excellence requires both focus and awareness. Ambition, ability, and attunement can cultivate awareness.
- What to do. Commit to balancing internal and external awareness. Stay alert. Call and callback—working clean with communication What to know. Efficient teams become an interconnected nervous system. Excellence requires active listening.
- What to do. Commit to confirming and expecting confirmation of essential communication. Call back. Inspect and correct
8. Working clean with feedback
- What to know. Mastery is never achieved; it is a constant state of evaluation and refinement.
- What to do. Commit to coaching yourself, to being coached, and to coaching others. Evaluate yourself. Total utilisation
9. Working clean with resources
- What to know. The grand ideal of working clean is no wasted space, no wasted motion, no wasted resource, no wasted moment, no wasted person.
- What to do. Commit to valuing space, time, energy, resources, and people. Waste nothing.
