Low-Hanging Fruit: 77 Eye-Opening Ways to Improve Productivity and Profits -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction Why Is Low-Hanging Fruit So Hard to Spot? -- Sand in Your Suitcase -- Low-Hanging Fruit -- Humans Ruled the World by Harvesting-Now You Can Rule Your Company by Harvesting Ideas! -- Increasing Your Idea Harvest Yield Exponentially -- Part 1: How to Uncover Low-Hanging Fruit: Seeing the Problem Is Harder than Solving the Problem -- Problem Solving in a Nutshell -- Chapter 1: Put a Price Tag on Everything to Stop the Waste -- Chapter 2: "Value Engineer" Your Products to Eliminate What Your Customers Won't Pay For -- Chapter 3: Ask "Why?" Five Times to See the Real Problem -- Chapter 4: Ask, "How Do We Know That Is True?" -- Corporate Myth Busting with "Why?" and "How Do We Know That Is True?" -- Chapter 5: You Need to Tag It to Bag It: Name a Problem to Help Everyone See It! -- Chapter 6: Don't Be Fooled by Misleading Metrics: Zero in on the Ugly and Rattle the Status Quo by Turning Metrics Upside Down -- Chapter 7: The 80/20 Rule: Everyone Knows It, but Few Use It! -- Chapter 8: Find Quick-and-Dirty Data to Get Refined Insights -- Chapter 9: Benchmarking Is a Mistake -- Chapter 10: Use Brainstorming in a New Way: To Find Problems, Not Solutions -- Part 2: Now That You See It, Solve It! -- Chapter 11: Ask the People Closest to the Work for Their Ideas -- Chapter 12: Get Out of Your Office and Go See for Yourself -- Chapter 13: Stop Ignoring Your Introverts -- Chapter 14: Turn Complaints into Collaboration: The Interdepartmental Job Swap -- Chapter 15: Other People Have Great Ideas-Just Ask Your New Hires and Your Vendors! -- Silence Isn't Golden-Honest Rejection Is -- Don't Let Your Company's Gatekeepers Stand between You and Higher Profits.

Chapter 16: Does Your Customers' Journey Take Them on a Road Full of Potholes? -- Chapter 17: The Unintentional Squelch -- Chapter 18: Stop Brainstorming to Find New Ideas That Move the Profit Needle -- Chapter 19: Making Problems Harder Can Make Finding Solutions Easier -- Chapter 20: Use a Checklist-It Works for Fighter Pilots and Brain Surgeons, and It Will Work for You! -- Chapter 21: Actually . . . Just Don't Do It! -- Chapter 22: Give People What They Need, Not What They Want -- Chapter 23: Simplify -- Chapter 24: Push Work Down to the Lowest-Paid Person Capable of Doing It -- Chapter 25: Save a Bundle: Take Simple and Low Tech over Sexy and High Tech -- Chapter 26: Save More than a Bundle: Go No Tech over Low Tech! -- Chapter 27: Borrow Good Ideas -- Chapter 28: Force People to Get Help -- Part 3: Motivate Your Team to Harvest Low-Hanging Fruit -- Chapter 29: Create an Idea-Based Budget -- Chapter 30: The Five Surprising Words That Keep a Good Executive from Being Great: "I Want Everyone on Board" -- Chapter 31: If You Want the Money, Spend the Time -- Chapter 32: Executive Motivators That Demotivate Everyone Else -- Chapter 33: The Corporate Imposter Syndrome: "The Better I Do, the Worse You'll Think of Me" -- Chapter 34: Improving the Company Should Be Everyone's "Job One" -- Chapter 35: Sweat the Small Stuff -- Chapter 36: Rally the Troops -- Use a Call to Arms, Not a Lessonin Accounting -- No TLAs -- Go Big or Go Home -- Chapter 37: Catch the Vision or Catch the Bus -- Chapter 38: Eliminate Corporate Whac-A-Mole -- Chapter 39: Beat the Competition by First Beating Your Teammates -- Chapter 40: "Blame the Other Guy" Syndrome -- Chapter 41: How Dimming the Lights Increases Productivity, and Why Paying Attention Pays Staggering Dividends -- Chapter 42: Firings Can Boost Motivation -- Part 4: One Company-It's Not an Impossible Dream.

Chapter 43: Form a Steering Committee to Make Sure the Left Hand Knows What the Right Hand Is Doing! -- Chapter 44: "Pocket Fisherman," Yes -- "Pocket Veto," No! -- Chapter 45: Hold Collaboration Workshops -- Chapter 46: The One Monthly Meeting You Must Hold -- Chapter 47: Celebrate Good Times, Come On -- Part 5: Decide and Deliver -- Chapter 48: The Three Essential Parts of a GOOD Idea -- Chapter 49: The Miracle of Deadlines -- Chapter 50: For Big Results, Focus on Small Ideas -- Chapter 51: Fight the War with the Army You Have, Not the One You Want -- Chapter 52: Add to Your Army Only When Necessary -- Chapter 53: Create an "Idea" Flight Plan That Coordinates Implementation -- Chapter 54: The People Who Implement the Idea Should Help to Develop the Idea: Make Sure the Buy-In Is Built In -- Part 6: Accountability: The Holy Grail! -- Chapter 55: The Devil's in the Details: Track Every Idea, Every Dollar, Every Month -- Chapter 56: The Golden Rule: Withdraw and Replace -- Chapter 57: Follow the Money All the Way to the Budget -- Chapter 58: Don't Let Someone Else Dictate the Value of the Ideas You Implement -- Chapter 59: Want to Actually See the Earnings? Lock the Vault -- Chapter 60: Track Your Position Plan -- Chapter 61: It's Not What You Start, It's What You Finish -- Chapter 62: ROI: Making the Investment Is Easy, Now Make Sure You Get the Return -- Chapter 63: Learn from Your Mistakes: The After-Action Report -- Part 7: Need More Time? It's Easier to Find than You Think! -- Chapter 64: "Everyone Is Entitled to Their Own Opinion, but Not Their Own Facts" -- Chapter 65: Replace Agendas with Game Plans -- Chapter 66: Ban Meeting Tourists -- Chapter 67: Don't Have a 60-Minute Meeting to Do 22 Minutes of Work -- Chapter 68: Watch the Clock! -- Chapter 69: Use Hard Starts, Not Just Hard Stops, for Your Meetings.

Chapter 70: The Obligation to Dissent -- Don't Let Executive Exuberance Lead You to Bad Decisions -- Chapter 71: Talk More, E-Mail Less -- Chapter 72: PowerPoint Kills -- Chapter 73: Schedule a Little "Me" Time -- Chapter 74: If You Feel Busy, Take on Even More Important Work -- Chapter 75: Increase Your Return on Time -- Chapter 76: In Order to Shine, Have Other People Do Your Work! -- Chapter 77: Mom Should Have Said, "Don't Always Do Your Best!" -- You Can Find the Time-Now Use It Wisely! -- "We Are Too Busy Right Now" -- "We Already Asked for Ideas" -- "Shouldn't We Wait Until We're Done with Certain Activities?" -- "Aren't We Paid to Manage?" -- "Our Employees Don't Have Ideas: We Need Outside Experts" -- "We've Recently Launched a New Process, and We'll Confuse Everyone by Switching Gears Now" -- "We Just Did Something Like This, and I Don't Think We're Ready to Repeat It So Soon" -- Part 8: Win Over the Skeptics, Cynics, and Faint of Heart! -- Part 9: P.S. For Our C-Suite Readers (and Those Aspiring to Get There)! -- Institute an Idea Harvest -- Create an Aide-de-Camp Position -- Create a Resource Team to Build Bridges -- Rotate High-Potential Employees Through Your Resource Team -- And a Few More Thoughts for Everyone . . .: Fight Decision Fatigue -- Manners in the Marketplace? -- Service Standards -- In Conclusion.