Welcome to issue No. 068 of the Lever

No matter your business or industry you probably have a variation of one of these problems:

1. Not enough people to do the work
2. The people I DO have don't want to work enough
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It’s a real problem and its only going to get worse.

Think back to the industrial revolution.

A few big technologies changed everything.

Steam power changed how food and goods were produced. People flocked to cities and society began a shift away from sustenance based (agriculture) to production based (factories).

Then Henry Ford invented the production line.

Now you could start with a bare frame on one end and spit out a completed model T on the back end, thanks to a bunch of stops along the way.

Think about those stops.

Each one was manned by a person or small team that did one thing.

Put on some wheels. Drop in an engine. Tighten some nuts and bolts.

And where did those people come from?

The farms.

Despite the rapid growth of industry in those early days there were still more people than positions on the assembly line.

Factories were built and staffed immediately.

People were trained using principles based on Scientific Management, a field pioneered by the likes of Frederick Taylor. Ideas like standardization, uniformity, and productivity came to be.

Using these principles you could quickly train one person to do one thing to a reasonable standard.

What has changed from then until now?

We’ve changed to a consumer based society.

Like a giant, smoky, coal burning furnace we always need MORE. And the infrastructure underlying it all has become knowledge based.

To keep costs of goods down production is outsourced to places where it is cheaper to manufacture the goods. Its cheaper because the cost of living is less and you can pay people less. Because People are the largest operating cost.

In places like the US we’ve shifted to a Knowledge Based society. We use whats in our heads to make a living.

But you can’t quickly train one knowledge worker to do one thing to a reasonable standard.

The lines are blurred

Because of the increase in production, there are now more factories and places of work than people.

And more is expected from each one. So they must be more highly trained, and more highly skilled.

That takes more time. It also means their labor is worth more. So they become a more expensive resource.

This higher perceived value paired with high demand means that expectations are higher.

“People don’t want to work” just means that they don’t want to work more than they have to for a given salary because they can make the same to do less at the business next door.

Its easy to say “just pay more”, but its not that simple.

While “greedflation” is a thing and a handful of companies are ruining it for the rest of us, it’s the small businesses that suffer.

99.9% of the 33 million businesses in the US are SMALL businesses, employing nearly 50% of private sector employees.

These are the businesses that need the people. But they can’t pay as much as the BIG businesses. So the top talent goes there, to drive the machine that continues to make things worse for the rest of us.

Because they have families to feed and everybody wants to get paid more to do what they are already doing.

And the cycle continues.

I don’t know what the answer is

But its obvious that it needs to start at the top.

What I DO know that this environment makes it easy for the individual to excel.

Learn a skill that is in demand. Do it well. And work harder than the next person.

That’s really all it takes.

So what skill should you learn?

To TRULY succeed I think you need two skills:

1. A specific skill
2. A meta skill

The specific skill qualifies you to do something. Anything.

That's a topic for another day.

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