We stopped ignoring the engine light, looked under the hood… and found endless opportunities for improvement and growth.

It happened again. A friend asked what I do for work. So, I went over some of my past and current projects at The Sponge, highlighting what I enjoy doing most. Then I paused… I looked at my friend and lowered my voice. As if admitting a huge secret, I said I actually really, really like Excel spreadsheets! I waited for the usual reaction of either surprise, disgust, disbelief, or simply mixed emotions.

I never thought that some of the things I enjoy doing most at work could be the very same things other people are averse to. It’s true. Give me messy procedures, unclear processes and inefficient tools and I will gladly accept the challenge to refresh and improve (and document!) it all.

This is how I ended up joining The Sponge team. A year ago, I went through a normal selection and interview process for an awesome new position. I was profiled as an Accumulator by Talent Dynamics and magically became an Impact Growth Alchemist for The Sponge. I started here with one mission: to help the team create a bigger impact. Overall, this meant increasing efficiency and capacity, preparing for growth and improving team and client satisfaction – accomplishing what most people (such as our CEO Luke, profiled as a creator) can do, but lack the interest or time to do. It was a great match as I was given a blank canvas to conduct all the analysis I could dream of.

The Sponge had – and still has – an awesome purpose and many bold dreams and goals for the world. But we needed to take a step back, reassess and refresh what we already had in order to truly and effectively move forward into the future.

This is what the last 12 months have looked like:

Continuous improvement being one of The Sponge’s values (and in my opinion an essential standard for every successful business), my work is never fully done here. However, over the last year, as efficiency increased, my workload slowly decreased and some of the difficult analysis and development was replaced with easier maintenance tasks – a testament to my hard work and success.

This is why, eleven months into my adventure with The Sponge, time came to complete my hardest task to date. My latest recommendation to benefit the business: to find an individual better aligned with the portion of my own role that no longer make financial sense for an Impact Growth Alchemist to work on. Of course, I’m still here to keep things in check, make sure everything looks good on our new dashboard, and start new exciting projects with The Sponge.

The key to the success of my role was always to keep The Sponge’s best interest at heart – and to take all the “horrible” spreadsheet and analysis work away from Luke, so he could concentrate on what he loves and his creativity.

Wouldn’t you want the same for you and your own Good Business?