Category archives: ASOSA

“Never automate a mess, clean it first.” Finally, the sexy part. The part everyone wants to start with.Automation is the reward you get for doing the other four steps right. But here’s the catch: Automating chaos just makes chaos faster.So, automation is last because it deserves a clean foundation. What…

ASOSA Step 4: Standardize “If everyone does it differently, you don’t have a process, you have chaos with a logo.” This is the step where we go from “this works for me” to “this works for everyone.” Standardizing doesn’t mean making people robotic. It means aligning on the best known…

“If you can’t find it, you can’t fix it.” This is where the magic of structure comes in.After you’ve simplified, you’re left with a cleaner pile, but it’s still a pile. Now you need to get that pile organized, to make it easier to find the data.It’s like data versus…

“If you can’t explain it simply, you probably don’t understand it.” Now that you’ve stared the chaos in the face, it’s time to grab the machete.Simplify is where you cut the nonsense. Processes grow like weeds: every new rule, approval, or Excel file was added “temporarily” and then stayed forever,…

“Before you fix anything, figure out what’s actually broken.” Let’s be honest, most people skip this step.They see chaos, roll up their sleeves, and start fixing stuff. In some cases it’s the way to go, because of a lack of time. But that’s how you end up with automated chaos,…

Let’s face it, most “efficiency frameworks” sound great in PowerPoint but collapse the second you try them in the real world.They’re either too corporate, too academic, or too heavy for teams who just need to get stuff done. That’s why ASOSA was born.A no-nonsense, five-step methodology that helps teams and…

Note: ASOSA has evolved since this article was first published. The current version uses ‘Organize’ instead of ‘Optimize,’ and adds more structure around standardization and automation. For the up-to-date overview, read the full ASOSA overview here. Another thing that has camped in my head for several months if not years,…

Back in the days, somewhere in the ’80s, when you said spreadsheet, no one talked about Excel because it simply didn’t exist yet. No, back then the king of spreadsheets was Lotus 1-2-3 and it looked something like this: Lotus 1-2-3 running MS-DOS I still remember using it and it…