Some organisations treat  people badly as they pursue profit at all costs. Yet this is short-termism of the worst sort. As you travel around and visit various companies, you will invariably see a poster or

The Industrial Revolution was the greatest ever change to UK society, transforming the lives of millions of people. Yet, at the time, many people suffered from appalling work under dreadful conditions. Now the UK is

Politicians often bemoan the UK's poor productivity.  Yet, at the same time, over the last decade they seem to have systematically destroyed much of the further education sector with a policy of 'a thousand cuts'. 

We expect modern managers to be numerate and analytical. We educate and train them to be so. Yet when we look at entrepreneurs we see something else.  We see creativity and passion. Which of these are

I read a comment the other day suggesting that increased private investment in (private) education would improve its productivity. I think this is debatable. As in many other areas, it depends on how you define and

Toyota has had its fair share of problems recently - and has certainly been knocked off the plinth it has been on for some time... held up as a beacon of efficiency and productivity, So,

You will have often heard a phrase like ... Success is a marathon, not a sprint ... indicating that the activity in hand must be addressed with focus and concentration over the longer- term. Well,

Many organisations make some attempt to treat employees well - with recognition and reward systems, flexible approaches to leave, healthcare and so on.  The trouble with such 'benefits' is that they quickly get absorbed into

Certainly in the UK, drones have had a bad press recently - with the disruption caused at London's Gatwick airport. However, the sensible ones among us (and I do - perhaps rather arrogantly - include

My father, who unfortunately died early at the age of only 54, was, like me, a technophile. I often say on seeing or using some new piece of technology .. “My dad would have been

The top one per cent of UK firms grew on average by eight per cent each year between 2004 and 2014, while the lower 99 per cent experienced annual productivity growth of less than one

We are all under pressure to multitask - to deal with emails, messages and reminders whilst also doing our 'real job' Even when not under this avalanche of inputs, many of us choose to listen

On a recent business class flight, the guy next to me got out his laptop and worked on if for most of the flight. I ate the meal,  a drink, snoozed a little and did

I only recently cam across TRIZ - a (Russia-originated) problem solving and creativity guide for 'the rest of us' - those who are not creative by nature.  Part of its 'secret' is that it is

Every week there is commentary in  the US press about the productivity of football (NFL and/or college) teams or individual players. This is not productivity - it is about performance  ... but fails to use

Do you want an innovative organisation - a creative workforce? If so, think about when you last had an original (or half original) thought. Not recently? Well, if you can't think originally, why and how

I have recently been writing assessments for students on productivity-related courses.  This is one of the more difficult exercises in academic life - and, of course, exceedingly important ...both for the quality of the qualification

Those of you who read last week's post will know I was in the USA on vacation.  I am now back in the UK and can reflect on the political differences. The USA was preparing

I’m currently touring parts of the USA with my son, on vacation. We both like a mix of natural beauty, tradition and live music. Tradition anchors a country in its core vales, though the U.S 

When I was growing up, there was a great controversy about whether fluoride should be added to drinking water to combat tooth decay in children.  In the end, science ’won’ and children’s teeth have been

If at the end of a typical working day (of, say, 8 hours) you had to go and start another job elsewhere, I would expect your performance on Job 2 to be limited and poor.

Parkinson’s Law famously stated that work expands to fill the time available. That is why we say “If you want something doing, give it to a busy person.” Non-busy people make themselves look busy by

I was musing about robots recently - as one does ... and started thinking about the sociology of such devices. Humans in a work situation can be excellent performers as individuals but the real performance

I read a piece the other day on the use of productivity measures for academic staff. The measures were all about output quantity (presumably with the proviso that papers wouldn’t be published if they didn’t