When striving to build a successful business or achieve significant goals,
identifying and addressing barriers is a crucial first step. Barrier identification is an essential component of any effective management operating system, as it allows you to transform obstacles into actionable insights that accelerate progress.
What Is Barrier Identification?
Barrier identification is the process of systematically documenting and analyzing the obstacles that hinder progress toward your goals. Barriers often present themselves as vague or analog challenges, such as “limited time,” “insufficient budget,” or “lack of clarity.” These symptoms must be translated into data-driven insights that can guide decision-making.
For example:
- Symptom: “It takes too long to publish videos.”
- Insight: The bottleneck lies in video editing, which consumes 6 hours per video.
- Actionable Solution: Invest in training or tools to streamline editing workflows.
Why Is It Important?
- Clarity: Without a clear understanding of the barriers, teams may waste time solving the wrong problems.
- Focus: Proper identification helps prioritize the most impactful issues to address first.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Logging barriers provides data that can be used to fine-tune strategies and allocate resources effectively.
- Speed: Addressing barriers early reduces delays and accelerates goal achievement.
How We Approach Barrier Identification
To embed barrier identification into our workflow for the podcast business, we’ve adopted the following approach:
- Create a Barrier Log:
- Use a simple Google Form to capture the following information:
- Date of identification
- Description of the barrier
- Impact (e.g., time lost, financial cost)
- Potential root cause
- Suggested solutions
- This log allows for continuous monitoring and improvement.
- Use a simple Google Form to capture the following information:
- Analyze Trends:
- Regularly review the log to identify recurring issues or patterns.
- Quantify the impact of barriers to prioritize solutions.
- Iterate Quickly:
- Test solutions for high-priority barriers.
- Document what works and integrate those solutions into standard processes.
Example: Applying Barrier Identification to Our SMART Goals
Our SMART goal for the podcast business is clear:
- Specific: Gain 50,000 YouTube subscribers, 5,000 Instagram followers, and $5,000 in revenue within 90 days.
- Measurable: Track metrics weekly.
- Achievable: Allocate a budget of $5,000 and cap individual effort to 5 hours per week.
- Relevant: Build a podcast that reflects our entrepreneurial journey and offers value to our audience.
- Time-Bound: Complete within 90 days.
Identified Barrier: Editing videos takes too long, delaying publication.
- Impact: 10 hours of editing per video.
- Solution: Use templates, pre-designed slides, and automation tools to reduce editing time by 50%.
Identified Barrier: Lack of promotion strategy for shorts.
- Impact: Limited reach on TikTok and Instagram.
- Solution: Dedicate 30 minutes per week to creating repurposed content from full-length episodes.
Help Us Build Together
We’re embedding our barrier identification process into every aspect of the podcast business.
By doing so, we aim to create a transparent, data-driven system that not only helps us reach our goals but also inspires others to do the same. Follow along with our journey on the blog and share your insights in the comments. Let’s break through barriers together!