Startups hire him when they’re growing too fast and about to explode. Big corporations hire him when they’re moving too slow and about to die. He’s the firefighter for process problems.
He worked with a toy company that couldn’t ship dolls on time. His fix? Changing the color of the packaging. It made sorting faster because workers subconsciously grouped them better. Yes, a color fix saved Christmas.
Who Is Lady Gaga's Husband? Does She Have Kids With Michael Polansky?
He once consulted for a zoo. His job was to improve how zookeepers shared information about animal care. He got them to use emoji-based reports. A sick penguin got a 🐧💊 symbol. It worked like magic.
The Secret Sauce: How He Thinks
Polanski believes every problem has a hidden shortcut. He doesn’t work harder; he works sideways. He asks dumb-sounding questions like, “What if we did the opposite?” Often, the answer is genius.
He’s obsessed with patterns. He once noticed that a factory’s output dropped every Tuesday at 2 PM. The cause? That’s when the supervisor called a pointless meeting. He canceled it. Output jumped by 12%.
He also hates jargon. If you say “leverage core competencies,” he’ll fake a sneeze. He prefers plain talk: “Tell me what works and what sucks.” That’s his starting point.
