blog.
Motivational Posters - Fad or Comfort?
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the overwhelming motivational posters, sayings, and related paraphernalia on various social media sites? Why on earth do so many of these things exist? And even more so, why does everyone feel that they need to share something motivational with the world all the time?
Kaizen to the Rescue
Successful organizational improvement initiatives depend on successful follow-up and maintenance. To this end, a very effective continuous improvement approach is Kaizen—“change for the best” or “good change.”
Kaizen is a Lean methodology that includes a set of activities applied continuously to all functions in an organization. What sets Kaizen apart from other improvement methodologies is that it involves all employees in the organization—from the CEO to the front line workers.
And it is easy to apply in any type of organization and to all processes within the organization.
Interpersonal Communication and Productivity
Stephen Covey got it right—Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Many of us forget the importance of truly trying to understand the speaker before offering up our comments. Without this understanding, we set ourselves up for ineffective interpersonal communication.
What happens when we don’t understand the message? We jump to conclusions and we misdiagnose. This is like diagnosing symptoms as problems, rather than getting to the root of the symptoms to find the problems. Our tendency to rush to fix what’s on the surface can get us into trouble. This is why communication is so important.
The Little Things ARE Important
When we focus on getting things done, we typically focus on allotting time for the important and time-consuming tasks. If it’s very important and it’s going to take a long time, we must get it done first, right? Yes and no.
In prioritizing, it is easy to forget to take care of work that can be done in a minute or two; regardless of its importance. When we consistently defer doing the little things, they can become big things. And big things can be a lot harder to manage.
Purge Parties are a Team Sport
For organizations focused on improving their productivity, there’s nothing like a purge party to get staff motivated. Not only do purge parties help staff manage their work space, but purge parties are especially useful for clearing outdated and useless office records.
By “purging” all unnecessary items, including records, from individual and shared workspaces, more space is acquired and essential items are kept and categorized for efficient retrieval.
Improving Email Communications
The Radicati Group estimated that in 2010 the number of emails sent per day was around 294 billion. This means that more than 2.8 million emails were sent every second by about 1.9 billion email users (almost 30% of the world’s population).
Given this high number of users and email transmissions, one would think that writing, sending, and responding to emails would be a simple act. However, this is not so.
Presenting Less for More Conversation
“Death by PowerPoint” is still alive and well, unfortunately. I continue to attend presentations where the presenter insists on crowding onto slides everything that they feel needs to be said within their allotted schedule. The result is minimal conversation during the presentation and, perhaps a blessing, the audience forgets the presentation as soon as it’s over.
It’s not sex. It’s not drinking. It’s stress and it’s soaring.
A recent study shows that six in ten workers in major global economies are experiencing increased workplace stress. China (86%) has the highest rise in workplace stress (source: The Regus Group). The American Institute of Stress reports that 80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress. And 42% say their co-workers need such help.
What is causing all this stress?
Efficiency: There is Only One Best Way
It occurs to me that many people are bound by habit to repeat inefficient behaviours. Inefficient behaviours are those that require us to use more time and more steps to accomplish tasks. Sometimes we don’t even realize how inefficient we are until a faster way is demonstrated to us.
Productivity or Greece?
Productivity is a very complex topic and even among experts it is difficult to exact a prescription to improve productivity. In its simplest form, productivity measures the efficiency of production. It is the ratio of production output to what is required (inputs) to produce the output. In terms of economic growth, governments look at productivity as the product of labour based on the average number of hours each employed person works and the proportion of the entire population that is employed. Labour productivity drives living standards. However, just because a person is employed does not mean that they are productive.
Overworked? Really?
I have worked with many clients over the past few decades and one of the common complaints that I hear repeatedly is that they are “overworked.” While this doesn’t typically surprise me when I hear it from staff, it continues to surprise me when I hear it from executives.
Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For?
Is there such a thing as too much customer service? The more I ponder this question, the more I believe this to be true. Sometimes organizations may go “over the top” to please the customer, but in doing so, they create the opposite effect. Here’s an example.
What Productivity Improvements Make The Most Positive Impact In An Organization?
I am often asked: In what areas of an organization can productivity improvements make the most positive impact? There is no one correct answer to this question, but here are some things to consider.
Simplicity is Key
Creative accounting. Insider trading. Financial fraud. Ever wonder why (or how) such corporate problems have become a part of our culture? I think it’s because corporations have lost sight of the importance of maintaining an efficient workplace.