The Who Cares Button: Something That More People Should Use

Posted on May 24, 2010 | 0 comments

It is very likely that at some point you have seen the Staples® originated Easy Button™ that first appeared in 2005. It is the big red button with the word “easy” scribed on it in white letters. The insinuation of course is that Staples® makes your life easy.

Due to popularity of the concept, Staples® turned the tagline into a saleable physical product and I have seen others use the concept of the “easy button” in some marketing efforts. I always believed that the Easy Button™ concept conveyed a particular level of genius marketing creative. But lately, I have had visions of similar buttons in my head only with different words printed on top.

For instance, how about replacing the word “easy” with the words “Who Cares?”. There are many things that business owners care about on a daily basis. Most people would go so far as to say that a business owner must care about everything. I beg to differ.

Now I am not suggesting that a business owner should not care about his or her business. In fact, my belief is quite the opposite. The challenge as a business owner (or anyone working in a business) is to clearly identify what to care about and what to not waste precious energy and brainpower on. Here are just a few of the common “cares” that plague businesses and lead to a degradation in productivity and morale:

• Micro-managing one of your team members
• Holding personal vendettas against a co-worker or competitor
• Participating in workplace gossip
• Trying to build your own empire within the company
• Worrying about the salary of someone else

For businesses that are systematized and operating with a level of measurable performance, the process of identifying things to care about becomes a relatively straightforward exercise. Every business system should have an owner. Every task within a business system is to be assigned and performed by an individual.

Focusing on the business systems that you own or in which you participate defines the scope of which you should “care”. The overall performance and continuous improvement of those business systems is something in which you should focus upon.

Stop wasting time meddling in things that aren’t part of the business system in which you operate. Instead, keep the “Who Cares?” button on the top of you desk. You might just find that by pressing it you will reduce your levels of worry, frustration, anger, and ultimately the levels of a silent killer – stress!