As a productivity professional, you get into the habit of asking 'awkward' questions - why do we do that?; why do you do that in that way?; But there are other questions that can be just as useful in uncovering the reasons for lost productivity. Occasionally, you've should go to the key points in a
Being introduced to one of the new AI services (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) is like meeting a genie who offers you three wishes. What should you ask for? The power of AI seems so immense that it is difficult to think of the prompts to give your AI or the questions to ask it. So,
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
Technology has been a significant driver of enhanced productivity over the last several decades. Now many are predicting that AI will be the next major revolution. However, the current crop of digital tools (including AI) is, by and large, aimed at backroom tasks and personnel. Front line workers are certainly less well-served, even in service industries. This
Most people - including me - would answer immediately - and say ‘No’. However, things are not so simple. Think of recent large-scale innovation changes. Nuclear power for example. Or space exploration. Such massive innovations could not have happened without large-scale investment (and planning and coordination) from governments. Other innovations cannot be fully diffused into markets without
Many people like to listen to music while they work on their computer or carry out other individual tasks. Music can drown out the sounds of the task itself or the sounds of colleagues - especially when working in an open plan office. Others think music is a distracting influence and prefer to work in
Most business people are aware that failure can be a useful learning process - allowing those who are part of the failure to learn lessons about what went wrong and/or where they could have improved their performance … and especially where they lack specific skills and experience. Now this ‘principle’ is being taken further by setting
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
Sometimes when looking at problems or searching for innovation, it is a handicap to have too much knowledge of the context of the problem. For example, if you give the problem of spanning a river to a bridge-builder, you will get a bridge as the solution. It might be a great-looking bridge and/or one with little
When firms are looking at automation (or AI) to find other ways of changing and improving what they do), the approach should always be to look at what you do now and how you do it. You can then automate an already-improved version of your processes and working methods. Those who don’t do this end