I talked last week about employability skills. During the past week I have delivered a pilot program with Indian students developing employability skills using productivity as the 'engine' or focus. The students really enjoyed the program - in India they rarely get asked to 'do' something - and within a week had been in a

I  have been doing some work in India recently and have been talking to employers about the process of employing recent graduates and post-graduates. What came across loud and clear and often were comments that such graduates are not 'work-ready' because they lack the knowledge and skills to become an effective member of an organisation

I have just got back from Turkey where I attended an event - a 'Leadership Camp' - organised by students for students - mainly students of industrial engineering. They had assembled an impressive set of speakers and sponsors and pulled off the whole event very well - complete with social programme. Of course not only

I was reading something the other day which reminded me of the number of keyboard shortcuts available within some software packages.  If you take the time to learn these, they can shave seconds off simple tasks - improving your performance and productivity.  Yet each individual time you use one, the benefit is tiny. Performance improvements in any process are like this.  Each one may be very small ...

I don't know whether you know about the horsemeat scandal in the UK - where horsemeat has been found in a range of pre-produced 'beef' products but it  does remind us that each of us is responsible for securing our own supply chain - and knowing what goes on within  it. We can't blame our

Some productivity methodologies and techniques seem to be more used in specific sectors.  This suggests that either they are in some way particularly suited to the processes involved in that sector .... or perhaps just a historical accident that the methodology or technique started in that sector and has not yet broken our into wider

Two old adages say "Measurement creates understanding" and "You get what you measure".    The first is self-explanatory - if you want to understand a situation, measure it, once you know how mant/much, when, at what rate and at what quality levels things happen, you can take sensible decisions about processes. The second adage implies that measuring things changes the behaviour of those associated with those things

There are many blogs offering 'personal productivity' advice - often linked to reminder/time management software... but often just offering simple advice. A common piece of advice is to 'declutter' your life - get rid of distractions and focus on the real issues.I can see the wisdom in this so from now on I will stop reading such blogs and focus

How would a productivity director of a global enterprise exhibit leadership? My first thoughts are that, like all effective leaders, they would define and articulate a clear mission, vision and set of values with commitment to : excellence, fairness, recognition, and reward. They would demonstrate an understanding of the environmental and social impact of business

For several decades after World War II, the graphs for productivity and wages mirrored eac other - productivity increases allowed workers to earn more money. Over the last decade this has changed. Whoever is reaping the benefits of increased productivity, it certainly isn't the workers. Part of the explanation is that technological change distorts the