Some (but thankfully fewer) managers believe that you increase the productivity of employees by driving them harder. increasing their workload and punishing mistakes. Nowadays, most managers know that getting results is more of a balance between 'driving' and 'caring', ensuring that hard-working staff are not overworked, burnt-out or increasingly anxious about their work. We need to
Some lucky employees have healthcare benefits as part of their remuneration package. The rest of us have to juggle healthcare with our other priorities and are subject to the vagaries of the healthcare system and any associated costs. As knowledge grows of health-related issues, including contextual and environmental factors, we are constantly urged to change
We've seen reports that AI systems can 'hallucinate' at times …. they throw up information which they have generated rather than reported, and sometimes the generation is a little strange. Now it may not surprise you to lean that AI can also lie - tell you things that can be proven to be untrue. One
Too many people, when asked about their performance - or lack of it - settle back on a range of excuses. "I don't have the right tools or equipment" "The stuff I get from my colleagues needs correcting before I can make progress" I get distracted by interruptions from others" I can't control all the
Leadership is a difficult concept to 'bottle'. I have studied leadership theory and even contributed a little to it. Yet I would have trouble boiling the concept down to a couple of sentences - to go in a dictionary, for example. This is partly because there are different kinds of leadership - for different types of organisation,
There has been a tendency since forever for companies to hire new people that are like the existing people. This results partly from both conscious and unconscious bias but also from a 'reasoned' argument that like people will get on better so the new staff will not disrupt existing relationships snd cultures. This is still taking
I have worked extensively in other countries than my own (UK). I have learned many valuable lessons - but perhaps the most important is that local solutions (to productivity problems) MUST be informed by local factors, local priorities, local policies. Take agricultural productivity as an example. Generally agricultural productivity (in terms of yield per acre) is much lower than
How many times have you heard a CEO or senior exec trot out those words. It is a common phrase but a rare company that acts as if they believe it. I have railed before about the invention of the title 'Human Resources' but that's how many companies treat their employees - numbers on the
Bad title. There is no one key to productivity. Yet, research shows a strong correlation between mutual trust and performance in organisations. Mutual trust means that: Senior leaders trust employees Managers trust their team members Managers are trusted by their direct reports Employees trust their fellow team members The senior leadership team is trusted by employees
The NHS (National Health Service) in the UK is regarded by many British people as ‘the jewel in the crown’ - by far the most important public service. Over the last decade, though, there has been increasing disappointment with the state of the service - with the COVID pandemic putting a large nail in the coffin. Though