Dear Growth Guru,
I’ve just come back from at day at MACH 2026, and honestly? I’m exhausted. Every stand I visited was talking about “supercharging productivity” and “AI-driven growth.” It sounds great in a brochure. But my reality is different, when it comes to the mechanical vs meaningful work.
I spend 80% of my day fighting fires. I’m replying to basic emails, chasing lead times, and fixing scheduling errors. I know I should be focusing on “sovereign capability” and long-term strategy, but I can’t even find an hour to eat lunch, let alone “transform” my business.
Am I the only one who feels like the technology is moving faster than my ability to breathe? How do I actually start delegating to these “agents” everyone is talking about?
Manically Mechanical in Manchester
Dear Manically,
First, take a breath. You are certainly not alone. Walk the halls of the NEC this week and you’ll find thousands of leaders feeling exactly the same way. We are living through the “Great Acceleration,” and it’s perfectly normal to feel like you’re running a race in lead boots.
The problem isn’t your work ethic. The problem is your Delegation Dial. As Julie Holmes discussed at her MACH 2026 keynote, most leaders are stuck at “Position Zero” on the dial. You are treating yourself like a high-end filing clerk. To get your head above water, you need to ruthlessly separate the Mechanical from the Meaningful work.
Nudge the Mechanical Vs Meaningful Work Dial
You don’t have to automate your whole factory by Friday. Instead, start small. Pick one “mechanical” task, perhaps it’s your initial lead qualification or your meeting summaries, and hand it over to an AI tool. Observe the result. Once you see that the world didn’t end because you didn’t manually type that summary, you’ll find the confidence to nudge the dial further.
The Bottom Line: The goal of all this new tech we saw at MACH isn’t to make you work faster. It’s to make the “boring” work vanish so you can be the leader your company actually needs.
Stop being the engine, and start being the engineer.
Identify the ‘Mechanical’ Work Sludge
The Mechanical work is anything repetitive, predictable, and logic-based. If you have to do it more than three times a week and the steps are always the same, a machine should be doing it. * The Fire: Chasing a supplier for an update.
The Fix: Use an automated workflow or an AI agent like Siemens’ new “Eigen” to handle the data-chasing.
Protect the ‘Meaningful’ Space
The Meaningful work is where the money is. It’s the relationship building, the complex problem-solving, and the strategic pivots. You cannot delegate your “gut instinct” or your “vision” to a chatbot.
Action: Block out two hours on a Tuesday. No emails. No “quick questions.” This is your “Meaningful” time. If the building isn’t actually on fire, it can wait.
📍 Are you stuck in the Mechanical? There’s still time to come and find the Manufacturing Revenue Growth Summit Team at Stand 18-411 this week. We’ll help you look at your “Delegation Dial” and find the one tool that will give you your Friday afternoons back.
