blog.
If Everything's Under Control, You're Going Too Slow
Mario Andretti, retired world champion racing driver, said: “If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.” In other words, there has to be flexibility in work in order to achieve maximum productivity. When there is little or no flexibility in work, there is a good chance that the work is being micromanaged. In the workplace, this quashes much more than productivity.
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?
It's Not My Responsibility
When I need to facilitate a meeting, I arrive early to set up the meeting room to create a positive environment for the participants. When I leave, I make sure the room is tidy for the next facilitator. However, even if I use the same meeting room several times a week, each time I arrive, the room is in disarray. Why does this reoccur? The simple reason is: Because no ONE person is in charge.
Just Thinking About It Won't Get You There
One of the things that I’ve discovered is that many people are great at planning–thinking about how to change processes or things to produce better outcomes. However, when it comes to reducing their plans to projects or actionable tasks, they get stuck. If you tend to fall in this group, spending your days thinking about what you need to get done, but never seem to launch out of thinking mode, then read on. I’ve got good news for you in the form of lists and schedules.
Involuntary Systems are the Key to Success
Have you ever thought about how many times your heart beats in a second, minute, day, or hour? Very few of us ever think about how our body functions, yet there it is–doing an amazing job of balancing all of our internal systems to keep us alive.
Head, Heart, Hands - Do You Know What You're Doing?
We all do it – incessantly discharge tasks, so that we can move on to the next one. And sometime, in our haste, overwhelm of tasks that are not completed and are waiting for our attention stops us in our tracks. Why do we bother with completing task after task, since there never seems to be a finish line? This “hum” of never ending tasks usurps our energy and causes us to view work as an irritation, rather than an opportunity.
Reclaiming Knowledge Work's Lost Productivity
In the mid-20th Century, Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” and said that productivity of the knowledge worker would be “the biggest of the 21st Century management challenges.” He was right. In fact, knowledge workers and manual workers are no longer exclusive–technology has blurred the lines of work such that even workers loading product onto conveyer belts are no longer exempt from being classified as knowledge workers.
Working to Death
A recent reader survey shows that British Columbia’s business professionals are working long hours, trending to near 70-hour work weeks. If you’re in this group, you’re setting yourself up for serious health and safety problems, most of which stem from sleep deprivation. In addition to these concerns, working long hours is counterproductive and does more damage to your organization than you might think.
Success is More than Just Showing Up
Woody Allen said that “80 percent of success is showing up.” There is some truth to that, but if all you’re doing is just showing up, you’ve got as much chance of being successful as a turtle crossing a busy highway. Success depends on how productive you are, no matter what you’re doing – at home, at work, or at play (yes, I said play!).
Good, Better, Best
Do you remember a time when you tried to do your very best on an exam or an assignment? What about preparing for a presentation at work? Or planning a meeting or delivering a seminar? What did it feel like? Do you remember how much effort you put in to do your very best? If you did your very best, there is a strong likelihood that you also got the best reward from your efforts. And you were happy with the results?
Is Your Cubicle the Source of Your Work Stress?
Office cubicles were introduced in 1968 by Robert Propst and were intended to increase office productivity. The idea was solid at the time, but as real estate costs grew, cubicle sizes decreased and are now a way of maximizing floor space by getting as many people into as little an area as possible. While this appears to be a logical solution to space problems, the solution has created other problems. Specifically, decreases in productivity and creativity.
Brain Dumps - Key to Being Organized
Many of us have participated in a brainstorming exercise at some point in our business careers. In fact, brainstorming seems to be the preferred technique by which organizations generate creative ideas and solutions for problems. However, it may surprise you to learn that brainstorming is no more effective for developing creative ideas than having individuals work on their own.
Meetings - bane or blessing?
If you’re like most executives, meetings consume a large part of your day. But if you’re a smart executive, you know whether attending or chairing a meeting is worthwhile well before the meeting takes place.
In my experience, many people attend meetings to gather information, provide project status updates, or invigorate a team that appears to be losing steam. These are all the wrong reasons for meeting.
Are you managing your records and information resources efficiently?
Find out if you are managing your records and information resources efficiently. Take the survey.
Procedures Par Excellence
Did you ever work for an employer where when you arrived for work on the first day you weren't given any documentation relating to the job’s role and responsibilities? I did. On my first day on the job, I was told to just “take it easy” the first few days and deal with the work as it arises. Relying on the job description and job title for guidance, I performed my role as best I could and managed to stay with the company for two years. Perhaps no surprise, a few years after I left, the company went out of business.
The Fast Track to Change
Here’s a hypothetical situation. Company A has been experiencing dropped calls in its customer service department. This has led to an increased number of customer complaints. To handle this, the customer service department’s overtime hours are going through the roof. As you can imagine, this is costing Company A a lot of money not only in overtime, but in lost customers. What should Company A do? There are two options. They can choose a traditional approach to problem solving or apply the Kaizen method.
Establishing the Need for Improvement: Benchmarking
One of the key requirements of implementing a continuous improvement program is to first establish a need for improvement. You may think this is quite easy, since you already “know” what needs improving. But establishing a need for improving services or products may be harder than you think. If you can’t show the need for improvement in a clear and meaningful way, it will be extremely difficult to get support for making change.
That's The Way We Do It Here
Culture is defined as "specific behaviours acquired (in part) from social influences." These social influences can come from family, friends, co-workers, and others. When we wish to focus on efficiency improvement, culture can be an aid or a hindrance, depending on whether the culture is affected by forces encouraging change or forces resisting change. Let me give you a couple of examples.
The Power of Why
One of the best ways to get to root causes of problems lies in the question “why.” Why does it take 30 days to pay an invoice? Why does Finance require five signatures on the cheque? Why is the Contracts Division involved in payment processing? Why? It is such a simple question, but it can generate powerful results.
Planning Makes Perfect
When was the last time you developed a plan? Did you implement your plan? And here’s the million dollar question: Did you implement your plan successfully? If implementation was successful, then it is very likely that you spent at least half your time in the planning process before you started with implementation.
The importance of planning cannot be overemphasized, but in western cultures, the tendency is to follow a cycle of “plan,do, re-plan, re-do, re-plan, re-do,” until the plan and implementation are completed.
This is the wrong way to plan and implement, since the end result can take twice as long and cost twice as much as necessary.