The original London Underground map was accurate—and incredibly confusing. It showed the streets, rivers, trees, and geography above the railway. But it failed at its main purpose: helping passengers get from one station to another.
Henry Beck, a young engineering draftsman, decided to take a different approach. He realized that passengers didn’t need a map of London; they needed a clear picture of the system. So Beck removed everything that wasn’t essential. He standardized the fonts, evenly spaced the stations, and stripped away the geography. The resulting map was less literally accurate, but far more useful. Within an hour, riders snapped up 1,000 copies.
When it comes to scaling, the best companies take a similar approach. Rather than simply adding more—more people, more meetings, more processes—they strip away the inessential and remove the friction that slows work down. AI tools are an obvious solution, and they can help, but only if integrated with the bigger picture in mind, in ways that genuinely boost productivity. As Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s chief executive, recently put it, “If people are getting more productive, you don’t need to hire more people.”
Here’s a closer look at where that friction tends to hide—and what the most successful companies do to remove it without increasing their head count.
When we think about our workloads, we tend to picture a series of line items to tick off a list. Viewed this way, sources of friction like unnecessary steps and approvals, and needlessly tedious tasks, can fly under the radar.
If instead, we conceptualize our tasks as workflows that we can design and optimize, we can simplify our processes and reduce friction.
For example, let’s say you’re building out the workflow for invoicing. One element is to confirm the client’s payment details—a step that’s tedious and prone to error. Instead of checking these details each time, you can tap an AI-powered tool to create a form or template that prepopulates an invoice using payment information already stored in your system.
To start simplifying your processes, it’s essential to map out your workflows: all of the steps, tools, and dependencies in a given task. Granted, it requires a time investment, but visualizing your workflows is the only way to identify flaws in the process, opportunities for automation, and smart ways to redesign them.
Once you design smart systems, you continually tweak and improve them. Leaders are left with more time to focus on big-picture items, like growing the company.
I founded a company grounded in the concept of automation. I love finding the latest artificial intelligence tools and tech to speed up tasks that don’t require my own deep thinking and creativity. At Jotform, we’re constantly researching new ways to automate our processes, from system backups to spreadsheets to content sharing and more.
But new technology can be a double-edged sword. If you’ve ever wasted the better part of a workday researching new apps, only to download yet another one that wasn’t so useful, you know what I mean.
The most successful companies today organize themselves differently. They understand that leveraging AI requires creating systems around it and building it into their products, rather than just layering those tools onto existing workflows. That’s what recent research looking at Y Combinator startups found.
For example, instead of having employees toggle among various AI tools for research, writing, data analysis, and content creation, companies can consolidate these tasks into a single workflow or platform, like ChatGPT Enterprise. Employees reduce context switching, slash time wasted figuring out which tool to use, and reduce errors from miscopying and pasting information. Intelligent automation can reduce repetitive work and disconnected outputs, helping teams work more efficiently without adding another layer of friction.
Once you simplify your processes and consolidate your tools, the final step is to clarify ownership for each step in your workflows. You can do this as you map them out. Assign each checkpoint, from first drafts to approvals, to a member of your team. And make sure those ownership roles are accessible. AI-powered platforms like Notion are a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page. You can even create automated notifications or reminders to ensure that all stakeholders are in the loop.
Transparent ownership can help eliminate bottlenecks. No more waiting around for someone else to push a project forward, without clarity on who that person ought to be. Clearly defining who is responsible for each outcome reduces handoff delays and keeps momentum moving. Instead of adding more people, you can leverage the right tools to ensure your workforce collaborates efficiently.