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The other day my wireless mouse ran out of battery power, and I could not find the admin who supplies me with new batteries. I walked over to the batteries recycle bin and took a couple of batteries. My mouse started working and kept working for a few days. This caused me to wonder how many batteries are being thrown away prematurely.

I talked to the admin and suggested that a battery tester be placed next to the recycle bin. Those who think their batteries have drained can check it before tossing it into the recycle bin, and those who need a battery in an emergency can take a couple to tide them over, and save time by picking only those which have a decent charge in them.

Being able to measure is not always an expensive proposition, and can sometimes pay dividends beyond the cost savings. It signals that you care about small things, are looking for productivity gains, are creative, and would like to save the planet as well.

One theory I’d like to test is whether providing larger (or dual) monitors will cut down on the need to print out a document. As we transition to the digital age (wait, haven’t we done so already!) more and more proof reading and typo checks can be done prior to printing. The need to print will never go away, because proof reading on paper is an indispensable step prior to a commit. But the need to print on paper prior to finalizing a document can be greatly reduced.

What improvement opportunities have you acted upon lately in your workplace? Don’t make a huge project out of this, otherwise you will be distracted by the ants in the workplace, you need to focus on the elephant and whale hunting. (Bad examples, I know, but you get the point)