Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

How to Free Up 30% of Your Team’s Time | Arnold le Rutte

14 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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1:12

In this brief interview, Arnold le Rutte explains the "support layer strategy," which encourages organizations to view work in terms of tasks rather than fixed roles. He notes that roughly 30% of a knowledge worker’s activities are low‑value, routine work that can be either automated or delegated. By removing this overhead, companies not only improve the cost‑effectiveness of existing staff but also free up strategic time for employees to refine processes, collaborate across departments, and address organizational challenges.

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Arnold, you say support layer strategy. What does that mean?
The support layer strategy is, and I think I mentioned before, is we, we try and guide our clients to think in tasks, not roles. One, because it challenges the preconception that I need somebody that has experience doing this particular job. You don't always. And secondly, it's the philosophy that we can pretty reliably look at anybody's job in an organization that's relatively well paid, they're a knowledge worker, around 30% of what they're doing, give or take, will be work that they're, they're being very highly paid for, to be polite. And what are our options? We can automate it or delegate it. If we can put people in to take that work off quickly, then it unlocks so much value in the organization. Not only have you freed up time and you're getting better bang for dollar on your current staff, that extra time can often be strategic time. It's the time that these people needed to actually refine process. It's the time they needed to go and collaborate with the guys in other departments to, you know, break down where are the problems and the challenges in the organization at the moment.