Know Your Enemy

By |2022-11-02T07:34:11+00:00November 5th, 2022|

If it aint broke, don’t fix it. That’s a useful slogan in some circumstances - but not in business. If you expect the status quo to deliver success, you are likely to be disappointed - or you are in some sort of niche situation or industry. If you aim to maintain the status quo, you

Hard or Soft?

By |2022-10-26T08:44:47+00:00October 29th, 2022|

Is productivity improvement a hard or soft skill? Is it better, for example, to consider and analyse hard performance data or approach improvement from a softer, behavioural stand point. This is definitely not an ‘either …. or’ scenario.  Hard and soft skills are complementary. When we change elements of a process, a system, a procedure or a

The Productivity Divide

By |2022-10-21T18:29:01+00:00October 22nd, 2022|

I have written a number of blog posts relating to working from home including ones that describe the  difference in view of effectiveness of WFH as perceived by employees and their managers. Managers who think staff working from home are not always productive sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to monitor what they think is productivity. They

Digital Presenteeism

By |2022-10-12T09:47:32+00:00October 15th, 2022|

We know there is a disconnect between the views of employers and employees on the productivity of working from home. Employees are happier and believe they are more productive; their managers are not so sure. Now it seems, that some of those employees are indulging in what has been termed ‘productivity theatre’.  They make sure their mouse

Its Not Football

By |2022-10-05T07:03:18+00:00October 8th, 2022|

Lots of US sports articles talk about productivity of a team, or a quarterback or other star player. Of course, they don’t understand the meaning of ‘productivity’. What they are talking about is ‘performance’. The  two are linked but they are not synonymous. Productivity is a ratio of output to input whereas performance relates to output

The Future of UK Productivity

By |2022-09-29T06:30:20+00:00October 1st, 2022|

The UK has a new monarch and a new Prime minister- one avowedly committed to economic growth as the way to climb out off the abyss we are in. But, as yet, apart from the long-espoused commitment to tax cuts, we have seen little evidence of what will create that growth. Where is the infrastructure

Stop Procrastinating with the 5 minute rule

By |2022-09-21T13:55:02+00:00September 24th, 2022|

Many of us procrastinate.  We leave tasks we don’t want to do. And work on simpler tasks that we enjoy - or at least tolerate. If this sounds like you, then read on. The five-minute rule is a cognitive-behavioural technique that tricks the brain into starting something it has been trying to avoid. The rule  is that

A Fresh Start?

By |2022-09-14T10:55:01+00:00September 14th, 2022|

The UK has a new monarch and a new Prime minister- one avowedly committed to economic growth as the way to climb out off the abyss we are in. But, as yet, apart from the long-espoused commitment to tax cuts, we have seen little evidence of what will create that growth. Where is the infrastructure

Creating a non-meeting culture

By |2022-09-07T06:54:57+00:00September 10th, 2022|

We know that meetings suck time snd energy out of an organisation - so why do we have so many. Especially these days when there are so many other ways of communicating without dragging  everyone to a central point which requires some of them to leave their offices and travel to that central point, further taking

What Should You Do in Your Breaks?

By |2022-08-31T06:30:55+00:00September 3rd, 2022|

Simple question asked here. Can you do anything in your break times to help your work performance? Well, of course, you can. Drink water - and keep hydrated. Take a walk.  Humans are made to move - not sit still. Breathe.  Make positive attempts to breathe deeply and soundly. If you are going to snack, snack healthily.

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