One of my great 'life lessons' came about from reading a quotation which I think is attributed to the Dalai Lama. "If you are in control of a situation, there is no need to worry.  If you are not in control, there is no point worrying.  So, why worry?" Similarly in business, there are things

Do your employees turn up at 9am and leave at 5pm, having completed their day's work.  Was it satisfying for you to watch them beavering away?  Were they productive?  How much more productive might they have ben working from home or from their local coffee shop? Employees often find certain tasks difficult to complete in

When you hire new people how do you induct them into the organisation?  Too often this consists of introductions, 'policy sessions', issuing of email ids and passwords .... and little else.  Your new people are informed - but bored. Yet, in many organisations there is one activity in which you could engage new staff that

Automation brings rewards to companies that invest.  The auto industry has installed many thousands of robots over the last 10 years - numbers of employed people have fallen, quality has risen, productivity is up. Great for the companies -and their shareholders: not so good for those now unemployed workers whose jobs have gone to the

Japan is offering employment subsidies to organisations that improve their productivity.  So 'winning' companies get a double boost. Is this a sensible role for government - to reward the successful? One reason for their action is to prevent companies from using job cuts to fuel growth. What does matter is that the aims of any

The relentless rise of technology and the willingness of men to experiment means we are likely to see a merging of mankind and technology over the next couple of hundred years - producing real cyborgs.  These will be highly efficient and productive workers. Eventually, the human race as we know it will disappear - unless

More firms are allowing workers to come to the office in less formal attire.  Does this have an impact on productivity? There is little research on the issue.  The arguments seem to boil down to: allowing people to dress casually makes them more comfortable, more relaxed and more content - and this has a positive

Nations are (quite rightly) urged to improve educational standards and attainments to help boost national productivity.  An educated - and skilled - workforce is a key underpinning of higher productivity. This is actually a vicious circle (or cycle).  Low education standards results in lower productivity - and lower productivity results in less money to invest

We know that teams that share values tend to knit together better.  A culture in which people 'get on' and work for each other is considered to be productive. Yet, tension can provide creative sparks; competition raises effort; oysters need an irritant to produce pearls. So, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Allow

Some countries are much more productive than others. One would assume that this gives the less productive countries lots of scope to learn what works and what doesn't - and boost their own productivity ... but this doesn't seem to be the case. This suggests that either those countries are not trying to learn the