Put yourself in the position of pain for a while so that you gain a richer understanding of what you’re designing for. Either literally or vicariously (through reading reports, job descriptions, etc.), temporarily insert yourself into the workflow of the area you’re looking at to gain a better understanding of what it is that you are dealing with. As you design, you’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned, and revise the machine appropriately as a result.

Visualize alternative machines and their outcomes, and then choose. A good designer is able to visualize the machine and its outcomes in various iterations. First they imagine how Harry, Larry, and Sally can operate in various ways with various tools and different incentives and penalties; then they replace Harry with George, and so on, thinking through what the products and people and finances would look like month by month (or quarter by quarter) under each scenario. Then they choose.

Consider second- and third-order consequences, not just first-order ones. The outcome you get as a first-order consequence might be desirable, while the second- or third-order consequences could be the opposite. So focusing solely on first-order consequences, which people tend to do, can lead to bad decision making. For example, if you asked me if I’d like to not have rainy days, I probably would say yes if I didn’t consider the second- and third-order consequences.

Use standing meetings to help your organization run like a Swiss clock. Regularly scheduled meetings add to overall efficiency by ensuring that important interactions and to-do’s aren’t overlooked, eliminating the need for inefficient coordination, and improving operations (because repetition leads to refinement). It pays to have standardized meeting agendas that ask the same feedback questions in each meeting (such as how effective the meeting was) and nonstandard meeting agendas that include things done infrequently (such as quarterly budget reviews).
