Redesign the way you work: Key takeaways from our Operational Efficiency webinar

“What if your business were to double in size overnight – what would break first?” 

That’s just one of the questions we explored during our recent Operational Efficiency webinar, Redesign the way you work – without constraints, hosted by Sophie Pentony and featuring smart/tasking’s CXO Gary Gamp and CEO Niall Anderson. 

Over 45 minutes, we jumped into the difference between being busy and being productive, explored practical personal efficiency hacks, and looked at how businesses can remove inefficiencies, not just optimise them. 

And we’ve included the highlights, insights, and some of the best contributions from the people who joined us below. 

“We’re confusing being busy with being impactful.” 

That was one of Gary’s first provocations, and it struck a chord. We all know someone who starts the day with 100 unread emails and ends it feeling like nothing important moved forward. Gary’s tip? Live every day like it’s the day before your holiday. 

That’s when most of us suddenly become laser-focused, proactive, and ruthless with our time. Why? Because we have purpose. A deadline. And a desire to come back to a clean slate. If you can build that mindset into your everyday life, even just a little, your productivity will no doubt grow. 

Try this: 

• Start your day with the hardest task (a technique Gary called strategic procrastination – choosing what not to put off). 

• Build in purpose: ask yourself, what impact am I making today? 

• Reduce "mental noise" by switching off unnecessary notifications and batching your work.

When Gary asked the audience: “What’s one habit you could stop today that would boost your productivity tomorrow?”  

The chat lit up! 

• Scrolling Instagram (multiple mentions!) 

• Overthinking everything  

• Trying to be perfect instead of just getting it done 

• Starting my day by looking at my inbox 

• Back-to-back meetings with no decisions. 

  
  

It was a stark reminder that often, the things stopping us from doing what we need to do are actually quite small, though not always simple.  

The second half of the webinar shifted focus to how businesses operate, and one key message emerged: don’t just try to make inefficient processes better – first ask yourself whether you need them at all.  

Gary shared a brilliant case study from a client in financial services. Their operations team was overwhelmed with 12,500 requests in a month, across 95 query types. But when smart/tasking analysed the data, they found that 85% of all queries came from just five issues, and most of those came from the top two. 

By automating just one of those, the request volume dropped dramatically, from almost 10,000 queries to fewer than 2,000. It was a lesson in focus, in data-driven decisions, and in the power of stepping back to spot the patterns. 

Gary asked another thoughtful live audience question: “If your business doubled in size overnight, what would break first?” 

This prompted a cascade of answers: 

• “HR and Finance” – lack of capacity and onboarding strain 

• “Our support desk – we’d be flooded” 

• “Project delivery – we rely too much on subcontractors” 

• “Timesheets!” – a constant pain point. 

  
  

The underlying theme? Legacy systems, manual processes, and unscalable ways of working. Gary and Niall wrapped up the session by emphasising something many businesses overlook, and that is: people cause complexity. Not deliberately, but systems grow, siloes form, and inefficiencies become “just the way we do things.” 

That’s why our approach is about standing back, getting and sharing perspective. Not just fixing broken processes but redesigning how work happens. Creating a target operating model that’s scalable, efficient, and built with the future in mind. That sort of work is our bread and butter, and we love it. 

Other key points we’ve taken away to remember: 

• Multitasking is overrated (AKA multi-failing). 

• Learn to say, “not now”. 

• Don’t mistake being busy for making an impact. 

• Start by removing, not just improving. 

  
  

From “eat the frog” to “stop chasing every notification,” the session was full of practical ideas for both individuals and teams. And if you missed it you can watch the full recording here.

Want to explore how we can help you or your team work smarter, scale faster, and eliminate inefficiencies? Get in touch – we love to chat. 

operational efficiency