Many people look to famous entrepreneurs as role models. They see people driven by success, working hard over long hours and completely focused. However, they fail to realise that such people might be ‘wired’ differently than the rest of us.  For us mere mortals there are things we can do to improve our abilities without

One of things we do, as productivity professionals, is to examine the evidence - the performance data - to identify where problems and Improvement opportunities exist.  Indeed, we often go further to investigate the root cause of a problem so we know we are not merely addressing the symptoms of an underlying problem which might

Many firms believe that technology will make them more productive - technology in their main processes and in their communication/administrative processes. Technology, of course, can be an aid to productivity. But it is only really effective when the firm is already quite efficient. We have all seen firms where technology has simply automated or accelerated

A few weeks ago I wrote about the need to take some time away from the pressures of work to recharge your body and mind and come back stronger.  Here is little tip (hack?) complementary to that one Most of us have a ‘To Do’ list, things we have to get done. We might use

I have been reading and writing about Lean quite a bit recently. It is one if those topics where the more you know and the more you read, the more you realise you don’t know.  There are so many interweaving and interrelated topics where you can’t fully understand one topic without also understanding two more.

Recently I talked about value - and the fact that it is not a straightforward phenomenon.  What I didn’t mention in that piece was the topic of what you value ... personally. Presumably if you are reading this, one if the things you do value is productivity - for yourself or your organisation  ... or

There are lots of blogs written about topics such as a The 7 habits of the Superperformers, suggesting we can learn from what successful business people and entrepreneurs do to make them successful. Well, we can. But the (one) secret is very simple. Most successful business people - and politicians come go that - keep

Lean Thinking emphasises the concept of value - which in business is the creation of product/service features and attributes that the customer wants or needs AND is willing to pay for. The second criterion of that statement is very important. If the customer is not willing to pay for something you are creating or adding

Are you doing everything you can to make your organisation efficient? Do you run a very ‘tight’ and ‘lean’ company.. Good! But it’s not enough. Efficiency is the baseline. It is where all organisations should start from. It is almost a ‘given’. If your competitors are also striving for efficiency, they will be at the

I saw someone suggesting the other day that increased private  investment in (private) education would improve its productivity. Think this is debatable? As in many other areas, it depends on how you define and measure productivity. We all know that productivity is quite different than production or output: fundamentally it involves the incorporation of resources