Over the last two decades and especially since the pandemic - the workplace has undergone significant transformations. The rise of technology-driven companies brought flat hierarchies, attractive employee perks, and open-office concepts. Meanwhile, the integration of productivity tools like Slack, Trello, and generative AI has aimed to make workflows more efficient. However, despite these advancements, more employees
Last week, I asked “What should we measure?” And talked about the need to measure outputs/outcomes rather than inputs - in terms of workers’ contributions. Working long hours is not a key to success. Those hours have to make a contribution to strategic goals. Now, I read that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called the
There is an old management adage… “If we can measure it, we can understand it”. This is broadly true. Certainly if we don’t measure, we find it hard to assess or judge. So. if we want to improve effectiveness and productivity, what should we measure? There is one basic answer to this. We should measure what is important
I have written before about my belief that WFH imposes a brake on productivity. There are all sorts of reasons - big and small. The other day I thought of another reason which I thought I should bring to your attention. When working from home, employees obviously (well it’s obvious to me anyway), have less engagement with
If, on reading this headline, your first response was “If I don’t multitask, how do I get through my long and varied To Do list?”, then read on. If you switch regularly snd swiftly between tasks, or even worse, try to do two things at one, (like handle your emails while in a meeting), you
Media pundits love to talk about the productivity crisis. (Well, let’s be honest, they love to talk about any crisis…. and if there isn’t a crisis to talk about, they will invent one.) The productivity crisis isn’t really a crisis. The decline and stagnation in productivity has been a general factor in the Western world for the
Poor, and declining, national productivity is a serious malaise. Not only does it mean that inflation is likely to rise - as wage rises lead to increased costs without corresponding output rises - but investment also declines). It seems ironic that firms invest more when things are going well but they do -and it’s not really very
AI is certainly ‘the next big thing’ with many claiming it as a transformational tool. Whether it is or not, only time - and productivity statistics - will tell. However, the sheer volume of publicity being given to AI means that most organisations should be aware of AI’s capabilities and potential. Before you go running to
Organisational strategies obviously work at the corporate level - they are overarching, sometimes summed up as BHAGs - Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. Such goals are useful in expressing the longer term direction for, and aims of, the organisation but they must be translated to make them fit for shorter term planning. Those within the organisation must
Clearly industry leaders havre difficult decisions to make at particular times and under particular circumstances. At all times, these difficult decisions should be informed by the overarching organisational mission and strategic plan. However, we are particularly interested in the productivity of the organisation. So where should this figure in the decision-making? The answer is very simple ….