The dull, the distracting, the dark and the dropped
Mahendra Singh Bora · ·Deciding what to fix
“Where would AI help you?” is the wrong question, asked of the wrong person. An owner knows their business, not the technology. Asked that question, most people guess. They name something they read about, and the work starts with a tool looking for a job rather than a job that needs one.
The four lenses below never mention AI. They are how we listen to a week, not how we ask about one, and they find the work before anyone talks about the technology.
Dull
Repetitive work, low on judgement, the same every time. It belongs to staff, not to the owner, and what it gives back is hours.
Distraction
Work that pulls somebody off the one thing only they can do. It belongs to the owner, and an hour of it costs more than an hour of dull work does, because it is an hour the business does not get from the person running it.
Dark
Work people stopped noticing a long time ago, because they decided it just comes with the business. Nobody owns it, which is usually why it is the largest of the four.
Dropped
Revenue that leaves quietly. An enquiry nobody answered, a quote nobody sent, a customer nobody called back. Nobody counts it, because there is no line on a statement for the money that never arrived.
The words stay on your side of the table
These four names are how you sort what you hear, not a script for how you ask. Nobody says “tell me about your dark work” out loud. You listen for an answer that fits one of the four, and you sort it there.
It is written up here in full because it is more useful given away than kept. Take it, change it, and tell us where it broke.
If you would rather we ran it on your week than run it yourself, ten questions, about ten minutes is the same method with the questions already written down.