Some managers think they need to keep an eye on their staff, fearing that, if they don’t, those staff will nor give their maximum contribution. One of the problems is that the staff will know

I talked last week about giving people decent work to do if you want them to be self-motivated. I stand by that but, of course, it’s not the complete solution. Many businesses overload key members

I have said may times in this blog that expecting higher productivity through exhortation is unlikely to be successful. Organisations or nations need systematic processes that address the causes of low productivity - and actions

Many governments Introduce productivity or efficiency drives. They aIm to reduce the size of the state not by cutting services but by cutting the cost of those services. However, few, if any, of those drives

Many businesses (too many) concentrate on efficiency at the expense of customer service.  We have all waited too long on a customer service call or had difficulty talking to a person we want to rectify a

Platforms for digital communication and collaboration (everything from e-mail through Google Docs to Zoom and Teams) can be very useful.   The problem is that when organisations use several of these, individuals can lose focus and

Those of us charged with improving productivity can sometime get anxious about our own, personal productivity.  Are we working hard enough? If so, why isn’t the productivity of the organisation higher? These are the wrong questions

Productivity requires employees to be fully trained in all aspects of their work role, preferably  including being aware of the organisation’s declared mission snd overall strategy. The problem for the organisation is that training can

Many of us have computers at home. We may use them for work-rerated tasks (especially now more of us spend at least some working time at home) or for social/leisure purposes. We tend to use

If you are doing some DIY work at home, say building a new cupboard, you might perform badly when compared to a professional joiner building the same cupboard. He is likely to build a higher

There have  been numerous reports lately of organisations cutting working  hours to increase  the engagement of employees, whilst paying the same salaries.  This is said to improve productivity. I am somewhat skeptical of such reports - and of the

If we give our staff a list of objectives to meet or tasks to complete, they will generally do so. After all, most come to work to do a good job and to please their

That headline does not mean we should stop making plans.  Those who don’t plan, don’t succeed. It means that we must recognise that a post-pandemic world causes us to rethink some of the old certainties.  The Omicron

When undertaking productivity assignments in some countries, it is surprising to find out how far performance and productivity is from that of the best performing countries snd organisations. This in spite of the data that

Do you know the real underlying causes of downtime and reasons for employee inactivity?  Are you able to act on these causes in time to negate their effects?   If ‘yes’ to both, you have

Managers who hear their employees laughing may be angry at the lack of discipline, art the lack of concentration, at the lack of serious effort. Yet, laughter serves a variety of purposes in a work

When we diet, we usually start with great enthusiasm and we probably have some initial success. We buy new foods and ingredients, try new recipes. We might go to gather gym more often band try

Many of us beat ourselves up at the end of the day because we haven’t been able to complete our ToDo list - which just gets longer and longer. However instead of bemoaning what we

Many organisations are bringing employees back to the office - perhaps not full-time but maybe on a hybrid working basis.  When they do this there are all sorts of logistical challenges. Do we bring everyone back

There is no one ‘secret’ to improving productivity.  It must be a team effort looking at big things like strategy and culture; and little things like execution and motivation.  None of these can be left out.  The

The UK government is pouring m ore money in to the National Health Service. During the pandemic the NHS has been highly valued but terribly stretched and many of its normal day to day procedures