Are you working hard but not seeing results? Maybe you’re frustrated because things are not going as planned?

You know the feeling: you’ve been working hard all day long, but you just can’t seem to cross anything off of your to-do list. The truth is—in many cases—your to-do list has grown. This happens to all of us at times, and it hurts employee morale and motivation.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have something in place to avoid this problem? To have a method to give you more success? There is! Let’s dig deeper into this.

Have A Structure For Success

How would it be for you if you used your resources to bring great results? You know, the kind of results that you can feel at the end of the day.

The Colruyt Group is a Belgium-based, family-owned retail corporation that has over 200 stores. The company was established in 1925 and has been successful for many years. I have seen this firsthand working with Colruyt Group in the area of work simplification. This perspective has allowed me to learn and even help develop the structure of the Colruyt Group.

Here are five important factors that have lead to the company’s success:

1. Less Effort Is Ideal

On the surface, it seems rather controversial to want to do more with less effort. This approach seems at least very contradictory and perhaps unrealistic at first sight.

But the truth is, this is what we all want. You may be convinced that this is impossible.

It’s not, I promise. Keep reading.

You know that if you want to achieve something, you have to work hard. There’s nothing wrong with hard work. But you also have to work smart. And when the time comes to rest, embrace that as well.

2. Focus On Logistics

Colruyt has some secrets that will help you better with your limited resources to go. The companies that do better than their competitors often have excellent logistics. For example, Apple is famous for innovation and design. But few people know that the way Apple handles inventory is also a key factor that has led to the company’s success. Apple keeps as little inventory on hand as possible to minimize warehouse costs. Colruyt uses this same mindset as well, and as a result, the company’s supply chain performs better than most competitors.

Think About Short-term Capacity.

Colruyt brings in hundreds of thousands to stores every day. Once the daily available capacity is determined and is expressed in packages. This is the specific number of goods the logistics centers can send to retail outlets.

Knowing the available capacity is essential. Many times, there is more demand than there is capacity. What does Colruyt when there is too little capacity? The products are shipped to meet demand. When the supply is lower than the demand, the only products shipped by Colruyt have the most margin.

You have to know your capacity in what you do as well. There are always more tasks to do than you can really do. Take this concept to set appropriate boundaries. Make it a priority to balance the supply and demand of the tasks you want to accomplish.

Think About Long-term Capacity.

When I worked for Colruyt, one of my projects was to determine the number of square meters of logistics that would be needed over the next ten years. We calculated various scenarios, and these forecasts provided insight into possible futures and what the necessary capacity would be in the future.

How does this apply to you?  Set aside some time to look ahead far enough so you know what steps to take. As a knowledge worker, this will make you more effective, and you will also have the foresight to make operational decisions at any given time.

To do this, you must take your work projects into tasks on your Master List and also place actions on your action list during the week.

What long-term projects do you need to consider when planning ahead?

3. Move From Push to Pull.

The logistics of Colruyt is based on a pull system in place of a push system. A push system pushes orders to logistics. With a pull system, orders are pulled through logistics. When your system moves from a push system to a pull system, you will find the system is more efficient.

Your inbox as a knowledge worker is a push system. When you organize your inbox, it will be used to push work for you. Using an action list for this week is a pull system. And when you use a pull system, you can optimize your capacity.

4. Look Around, Copy And Adapt

It is a good idea to look at others in the same industry and those outside your industry to bring in good ideas to adapt.

If knowledge workers do the same, you can look at what works. Copy and customize that approach to fit your circumstances.

Look around to find well-organized people or pick some people that you know they are in the same situation as you. How are these individuals so effective?

5. Be Different

While this may not be the greatest secret of Colruyt, an essential component for Colruyt is that the company wants to be different from everyone else.

If Colruyt did the same things as their peers, they got the same results. They did not get above average results.

Being different is an attitude that is cultivated within the company. And that’s a good thing. Because it gives team members the permission to be different.

As a knowledge worker interested in more results, this will also mean doing things differently than others. You want to move to the right side of the Gaussian Curve; this is where extremely productive people are.