I am writing this article on a Pentium II laptop that I bought used 4 years ago for $300. It has no memory left. It has an obsolete operating system. It can’t record to a CD, only a 3.5-inch floppy disk. This week it stopped letting me access the Internet. And yet I am still using it. I haven’t bought a new one, even though they are so inexpensive these days. I complain about it, but I haven’t made a move to change my evil ways. Why?

A great mentor of mine used to tell the story about a man whose dog was lying down in one spot in the yard and just whining a little every now and then. When a neighbor asked him why the dog was whimpering, the man replied, “He is lying on a nail.” The neighbor inquired, “Why doesn’t he just get up and go lay somewhere else?” to which the man replied, “Because it doesn’t hurt THAT much!”

How often in our daily lives do we get so used to a less-than-ideal situation that we become dull or oblivious to the pain? Sometimes we force ourselves to just accept the discomfort and learn to live with it. Other times we simply hesitate to change our situation because it means getting out of what has become our comfort zone. Sometimes we are just so close to the pain or the problem that we just don’t see it anymore. We might even internalize it and make ourselves out to be silent martyrs. Then again, as in my case, it just doesn’t hurt enough for us to do something about it!

Businesses face the same challenge. A small business may be losing customers to a new ‘big box store’, and slowly bleed to death because neglects to change and find a way to be competitive. Managers often keep employees on who are less productive than most or who don’t fit in with the team or the culture of the company, simply because they don’t want to create waves, make extra paperwork, take the time to find a replacement or pay unemployment-related costs.

No matter what stage your business is at, you will come across situations that are not or are no longer in the best interest of the company. Times inevitably change, and our methods of doing things need to change with them. Technology is probably the most prominent pacesetter that requires constant updating. Here are some tips for checking for situations in which you may have either consciously or unconsciously compromised your own or your business’s quality of life.

• Every 3 months, take an informal inventory of all of your equipment (not just hi-tech). Check to see if newer, improved, different or more efficient models exist that would save you time, money or both. Maybe there is something on the market that would enable you to provide a better quality of service or product. There may be something that cuts your production or delivery time. Do the same kinds of checks on your processes as well. Be sure that you are getting the most return on your equipment investments. Stay informed and cutting edge. After all, your competitors are.

• Have valid employee evaluations, with goals and benchmarks. Replace or reassign anyone who is not carrying his or her weight. If you don’t stay true to this, you not only cheat your company, but you will lose the respect of any of your employees who are making the effort to do what is expected of them. They know who the weakest links are, and are watching to see how you handle them.

• Once every 3 months, take a complete day or weekend off, far away from work. Take that time to reevaluate your personal and business goals and your progress towards them. Do the same with your mission statement. Are you still on target? Are there distractions in your life that you can eliminate to make you better focused? It takes constant and conscious analysis of everything you do to really find and pull out the “nails” that you might be sitting on.

• Ask others, from your executive team down to your customers, for suggestions on making things better, more efficient, easier to work with, less costly, safer etc. Maintain an open door, no repercussions policy regarding any suggestions for improvements or changes that would make the company a better, more pleasant place to work. Minor pains in a lot of different areas can be as damaging to your business as a major catastrophe.

• One a year, hire consultants in operations, business management etc. to review and analyze your company from top to bottom to identify and offer suggestions for fixing both major and minor flaws or challenges.

It takes discipline, but it would well worth your effort to train yourself to be consciously aware of any time you have or hear a complaint. Never pass it off as just an unnecessary evil or minor inconvenience, especially if it is a reoccurring problem. Innovation and improvement are both direct products of relieving pain, no matter what form it is in! It is to your advantage to find a way to effectively eliminate the source of a problem. Who knows, you may just stumble upon a solution that no one else has thought of yet. It might even be something that you can market to others with the same challenges!