Last week I talked about the problem of national productivity measurement when we fail to count lots of 'intangibles. Musing further, I got to thinking  about companies like Google and Yahoo who give away many of their services for free (at least to the end user at point of use). Google and Yahoo put lots

In a recent paper, the governor of the Central Bank of Barbados said that even though Barbados is relatively prosperous as a Caribbean nation, it will only move up the international 'league table' by improving its labour productivity. He then suggested that this is difficult because only about 30% of the Barbadian workforce feels fully

In small businesses low productivity is rarely the fault of the workers - it is because the owner/manager has not set up production processes properly -or has failed to manage them effectively. Too many owner/managers want to micro-manage ... they see their job as 'keeping on top of things'. It is - of course... but

There has been discussion on the Productivity Futures LinkedIn group this week discussing whether productivity and innovation are natural enemies or bedfellows. Of course I chimed in - well, I can't resist - and my view is that real productivity development - revolutionary rather than evolutionary - is unlikely without innovation.  Innovation can transform productivity.

I have started this blog before with words such as ..."I read a survey the other day..."  Sometimes reading the results of these 'business surveys' can be interesting .. but too often it seems the results are so obviously in favour of the organisation who commissioned the research. I read a survey the other day

Teams are sometimes more productive than the sum of their parts - because the 'chemistry' among the team is 'right'. We've all seen such 'chemistry' at work - in working teams and in personal relationships. But is it a lucky accident - or can we create it? Team building is not about taking teams on

Productivity is a 'neutral' measure - it doesn't come with praise or blame attached.  To understand the reasons behind the figures we have to dig deeper, sometimes much deeper, than the headlines. For example, we might read that the construction industry has had a poor quarter in terms of measured productivity - but a scratch

We all need a bit of ‘me-time’ … when we forget about all the tasks we have on our To-Do list, forget all our work pressures, forget our commitments and concentrate on ourselves.  ‘Me-time’ needn’t be long; it is the quality that matters. Well, of course the other thing that gives us real pleasure is ‘you-time’

I've been doing a lot of writing recently.  I'm lucky - I find that words just come out - easily - in torrents.  My problem is not writing; its marshalling my thoughts and turning the words into something readable and sensible.  When I read back what I've written, I invariably think it is too long

What will lead you to higher productivity in 2015? New products, new technologies, new structures? For most organisations, the answer is none of these.  Those that succeed in improving their productivity will do so by doing what they do now a little more effectively and/or efficiently.  Big gains come from lots of small, incremental gains.