Many companies hire outside consultants, at substantial cost, to help them become more productive. Greater productivity will save any company money, typically more than the cost of such consultants.

However, you have people already employed who could be superb consultants with no additional cost. All you need to is regularly ask your employees what ideas they have to streamline any functions. You’ll be amazed with the number and quality of their suggestions.

These are the people who do the work every day and they know where the waste is. They also know how to make it more productive. The problem is, they follow the systems they’re told to follow because it’s always been done that way.

There’s an old story about a mother teaching her daughter how to cook a roast. The mother teaches the child to first cut off the ends of the roast before putting it in the pan. The child asks why the ends have to be removed and the mother tells her it’s because that was how she was taught to do it. They decide to call Grandma and ask her why. Grandma tells them it was because she only had a small pan and it didn’t fit until the ends were removed. The mother has been doing this all these years, wasting the extra beef, because she never questioned what she had been taught until her child asked the question.

Are you still doing things the same old way? (It’s okay to admit that you are.) Go out today and ask your employees for suggestions. See what happens.

If you really want to amp up the impact, provide some type of acknowledgment or reward for ideas that save the company money or time (saving time is equal to saving money).

Don’t do this just once. Make it a regular exercise since things constantly change and new ideas are generated.