Our aim at Athena is to give you your time back so you can spend it in the ways that matter most.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips.

Toyota Assembly Line

A worker spots a crooked door panel in a Toyota factory floor in 1955.

In any other plant, she'd keep quiet and let it slide. At Toyota, she yanks a yellow cord hanging above her station.

The entire line grinds to a halt. Supervisors rush over.

Together, they fix the panel, trace the root cause, and restart production.

The whole stop takes four minutes.

Ford executives visiting Toyota watched this happen twelve times in a single shift. They left shaking their heads.

Who gives assembly workers the power to stop million-dollar production lines?

But those four-minute stops saved hours of rework downstream.

A misaligned door becomes a rattling complaint six months later. A loose bolt becomes a warranty claim. Small problems compound like interest.

Toyota calls this the "Andon cord."

Most manufacturers feared stops. Toyota embraced them. Each halt became a chance to prevent ten future failures. Each worker became both builder and guardian.

The magic lived in the response. When the cord pulled, supervisors arrived to help, never to blame. Problems got solved at the source, while memories stayed fresh. Tomorrow's defects died today.

At Toyota, pulling the Andon demonstrates care, pride, and ownership. Workers who spot the most problems earn recognition. Quality emerges from thousands of small corrections, each one preventing future headaches.

In Situ Delegations

In situ delegations are small inserts of context that appear right when you reach for them. Your assistant embeds these details directly into calendar invites, Slack channels, or Zoom links.

One Athena member keeps a folder for "tickets." Concert confirmations, hotel bookings, flight details. Under 10 emails total. When he's checking into a hotel and needs the confirmation number, he opens one folder. Done.

Smart delegation works the same way. Plant tiny bits of information exactly where you'll need them.

Some real-life examples:

1. Delta wifi credentials in flight invites: Your assistant adds the airline frequent flyer number and password to every flight meeting invite. Mid-air, you open your calendar and log in. No frantic inbox searching at 30,000 feet.

2. Insurance details in doctor appointments: Health insurance ID, group number, and provider phone embedded in the calendar event. The front desk asks. You glance at your phone. Answer immediately.

3. Name pronunciations for first meetings: "Meeting with Siobhan (shi-VAWN) from Accenture" right in the invite title. You nail the introduction.

4. Currency notes on landing day: "€1 = $1.07, tip 10% at restaurants, taxis accept card" appears in your calendar the morning you land in Paris.

These work because everything lives where you naturally look. Future you finds the context without remembering where you filed it. Your assistant updates templates once, then clones for similar situations.