BAU hunt
Module 10
BAU hunt
Drive growth with simple 3P BAU changes and new ideas that have powerful combined results.
BAU potholes
Identify the things that are in your way, creating obstacles, and work out how to remove or minimise them.
Activity: BAU hunt
We’re now entering Phase 2 of the Profit on Purpose program: the Levers phase. Don’t worry, we’ll talk a lot more about that in person in the upcoming workshop!
In Phase 1, we focused on Foundations — benchmarking where we are now, and strengthening the brand and business fundamentals that will support growth. We clarified our purpose, vision, values and objectives, aligned as a leadership team, and started to build a shared understanding of what growth with a triple bottom line focus really looks like.
Now, we shift gears.
This phase is about identifying the levers we can pull — now and later — to start shaping a strategic path forward. That means getting specific about what actions will move us toward stronger outcomes across People, Profit and Place. And it starts with something simple: finding the quick wins hiding in plain sight.
We’re not talking about new initiatives or major transformations (yet). We’re talking about low-lift, high-impact changes inside the way we already operate; the kinds of things that save money, streamline effort, lift morale, or reduce our footprint. When those small shifts are anchored to a triple bottom line mindset and spread broadly across the business, they start to add up fast.
We’ve seen how much of the 3P lens is already present in our everyday operations, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. This activity is about turning up the dial: finding opportunities to pivot, tweak or improve existing day-to-day activities in a way that better serves People, strengthens Profit, and creates a more positive impact on Place.
To borrow a more relatable analogy:
Think of your business like a hit TV series with a great cast and a solid story arc. You don’t need a reboot, you just need a strong season ahead. That means tightening the scripts, cutting filler scenes, and doubling down on the storylines people care about. Same show, better impact.
The goal here isn’t unnecessary disruption. It’s refinement.
It’s about tuning the day-to-day machine so we’re better equipped to grow in ways that are not just scalable, but sustainable.
As you work through this activity, consider these kinds of lenses:
Where are we spending more than we need to? Where could we save?
What’s harder than it should be: for our teams, customers or community?
Where are we duplicating effort, missing efficiencies, or over-servicing?
What would help make our intent more visible or our actions more aligned?
Where could we lift energy, pride or engagement?
What changes would have a positive environmental or community ripple?
Here are just a few examples across the 3Ps to get you started:
People (team, customers, partners)
Swap out 90-minute meetings for 45-minute focused check-ins to free up thinking time and reduce fatigue
Embed short customer impact stories into weekly team standups to reconnect people to purpose
Improve onboarding guides to reduce handover confusion and increase confidence early on
Profit (revenue, cost, performance)
Audit recurring software licenses and subscriptions — what’s unused or duplicated?
Revisit supplier agreements to identify local or more cost-effective options
Look at office lighting, could it be more energy efficient to cut down on utility bills?
Place (environment, community, reputation)
Switch default printing to double-sided and black-and-white to cut costs and waste
Create a rotating volunteer day program with local charities to deepen community ties
Reuse packing or shipping materials for internal transfers and deliveries
The best quick wins are small, scalable, and tied to the 3Ps. And the more broadly we sprinkle them across the business, the stronger the platform we build for the strategic choices still ahead.
Ready?
Let’s go hunting.
In the form below, you’ll find four quadrants: Cost, Operations, People, and Place.
For each, list 1 to 3 BAU ideas you can see within your current day-to-day activities that could:
Save money
Save time or streamline effort
Improve team energy, culture, or morale
Reduce environmental impact
Lift outcomes for a specific group or the wider community
In brackets next to each, write People, Place or Profit, depending on what they most align with, bonus for all three!
These should be real-world, practical ideas, things we could tweak, pivot, or introduce into existing processes, policies, or ways of working. They don’t need to be big or bold, just smart, actionable, and aligned with our People, Profit and Place lens.
Think back on past conversations, your own experience, or any opportunities we’ve identified but haven’t acted on yet.
Bring your completed ideas to the workshop; we’ll discuss them together and look at where they fit into our bigger 3P strategy. The aim is to surface some easy wins that help us move faster, smarter, and more sustainably.
Activity: BAU spot the potholes
In business, it’s not always the mountains that slow us down, it’s the potholes. Small frustrations, clunky processes, and hidden inefficiencies quietly chip away at profit, momentum, and morale. And often, they go unnoticed, dismissed as ‘just the way we’ve always done that’.
This activity is your chance to pause and call them out.
Where do the little things in our business-as-usual make work harder than it needs to be? Where are we wasting effort, draining energy, or missing opportunities to align better with our goals?
We’re especially interested in potholes that affect our 3P progress, things that:
Drain profit or add to cost without good reason
Undermine culture or wellbeing
Create unnecessary waste or negative impact
Miss a chance to support people or communities around us
The clearer we are about what’s holding us back, the faster we can smooth the road and move forward with more speed, less stress, and stronger impact.
Reflect on your area of the business where you spend the most time day-to-day.
Using the prompts below, jot down a few honest observations. You don’t need polished answers, just practical examples and quick notes:
What feels unnecessarily slow or clunky?
Where do errors, rework, or waste tend to creep in?
Where do people get frustrated, disengaged, or burnt out?
Are there any moments that feel at odds with our values or 3P goals?
Think about impacts across all three Ps and where they intersect: profit, people, and place. Where might these friction points be quietly costing us money, morale, momentum or meaning?
Bring your notes to the workshop. They’ll feed directly into our planning, helping us smooth the road and accelerate toward the outcomes we are building.