Effective. Efficient. For years these two words have been closely linked, even with their different meanings and applications. In his classic book, The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker explained that “efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right thing.”

And to punctuate the point, he later emphasized, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently something that should not have been done at all.”

To all of those who are obsessed with efficiency, please note that efficiency is past its prime. As I wrote in 20 workplace trends that are on the way out from the Forbes Coaches Council back in February, efficiency is outdated. (My contribution was #17: Always Aiming for Efficiency.)

Efficiency rewards speed, less effort, and lower costs at the expense of things that matter more in our post-pandemic world. Does anyone enjoy working with “efficient” customer service chatbots that can’t figure out what you’re saying or texting?

Today we’ve got to grasp and deal with all the increased uncertainty and complexity surrounding us. Consider the annual Accenture Pulse of Change Index. Since 2019, the rate of change affecting businesses has risen steadily  — 183% over the past four years! To respond to this degree of change, 83% of organizations that participate in Accenture’s pulse are reporting that they’re accelerating their planned transformations.

On an individual basis, we need to cope with the speed of change and disruption by building stronger human connections with individuals who are curious, wise, and willing to think hard and figure things out. We also want more reliable supply chains delivering quality products and interactions that we value. Yes to sustainable brands and people acting more responsibly. And no to single-use goods, relationships, and skills.

If efficiency is out, what’s in? Back in February, I advocated pausing and pursuing multiple options. Now, I’m also supporting working from scratch when you can. For example, rather than tweak or retrofit what you’ve done in the past, start with a blank slate. By taking a “clean sheet” approach, you can realize these seven advantages:  

1. Align more tightly with your current goals.
2. Ensure you’re taking into account current circumstances, such as up-to-date laws, scientific findings, and other important criteria, including greater simplicity to counter external complexity.
3. Address root causes of the problems you’re encountering, rather than fixing the symptoms.
4. Be more flexible and adaptable rather than being locked into what’s worked in the past.
5. Be more creative and innovative, which goes along with the flexibility and adaptability.
6. Avoid legacy issues, such as baked-in efficiencies and overly complex existing steps and procedures.
7. Encourage more engagement and ownership from your team and colleagues, especially those who appreciate having a say in what you’re doing.

To see how this works in real life, consider these three practices vital for leaders today: leadership communications, meetings, and development. If you design your current practices as well as other processes and programs without considering advancements in neuroscience, you’ll tax the cognitive load of everyone on the team including yourself. And the impact won’t be as great if you’re not following the science. As a result, you’ll miss opportunities to help others and you learn to think and act more effectively.

When you use principles of neuroscience in designing these practices, especially with a clean sheet, here’s what happens:

1. Leadership communications

As a leader, you’ll move from broadcasting messages to holding conversations. You’ll be well positioned to listen and learn from others and respond to what you’ve heard. You’ll come across as a real human being with a distinct personality, showing empathy, compassion and vulnerability.

2. Meetings

Your meetings will start with check-ins and end with check-outs. By framing your meetings this way, you’ll immediately capture participants’ attention, which will help them focus on your time together. And when you conclude, you’ll help participants remember the key elements and their follow-up action items. Plus, if you adopt the concept of an adaptable agenda, you can better adjust to changing situations, involve participants more, and make your meetings more interactive, which also helps them be more interesting and memorable.

3. Development

When neuroscience is combined with adult development concepts—known as “vertical leadership development”—development flips and becomes much more tailored to the individual and much more valuable immediately and longer term. Rather than add more skills, which function like apps for a device, leaders are able to upgrade their personal operating system and improve both their being and doing as a human. Instead of adding more random “dots,” they can better connect existing dots. They’re also able to widen their aperture to see different perspectives and act accordingly. This orientation to development helps leaders deal more effectively with today’s uncertainty and complexity. Leaders also can look inside themselves as well as consult others rather than relying on outdated leadership playbooks.

By making these “clean sheet” changes, you’re upgrading your ways of working. How effective can you be in identifying outdated workplace trends in your organization and replacing them—ideally with a clean sheet?