Labour productivity is all over the place for many Western nations.  It rises, it slows, it plateaus.  It is hard to predict as these countries struggle to climb out of recession.  Productivity fuels economic growth - but then employment and wages catch up and productivity levels off.  Many organisations are spending all their attention on

Clusters have been proved to a useful development tool - bringing together companies - and people - from similar industries/activities - to share knowledge and  experience, and to collaborate.  A similar effect can be created locally by bringing together employees from within the company to discuss problems, issues, projects, developments - sharing perspectives from designers,

This blog is concerned with regional, national and organisational productivity. Rarely do we 'stray into' personal productivity - largely because I think it is more or less irrelevant in terms of raising those other productivities - they are based on the effectiveness and productivity of processes and systems - not individual people,. However, I read

I recently had a day off - by 'off' I mean no fixed appointments. I decided to work from home - but I found I got little done. I found the peace and quiet, the lack of telephone noise, the absence of colleague chatter quite disconcerting.  Is it because I need those things to remind

I was in Italy recently ... and I used public transport quite a bit - trains and buses.  All the journeys I made were on time, and to schedule. Of course, public transport is subsidised in most European countries - by governments as part of the national infrastructure.   This set me thinking about the

At the end of your next day at work ask yourself ... "If we carry on working like this on these tasks, how will we be different - and better - in 5 years time?"  If you cannot answer that, you need to do some things differently - or some additional things. Otherwise nothing is

I have been in discussions many times with businessmen and advisers about whether firms should concentrate on their productivity or their quality - which has the biggest impact on success. Of course the quick answer is "Both" - they are not mutually exclusive! But I remember listening to my colleague (and former president of WCPS)

We occasionally see reports or thoughts on the productivity of education - but it is a tricky situation to get to grips with ... partly because it is so hard to define outputs - and especially effective outputs.  Does it matter?  Isn't education something we just have to provide? Well, it matters.  Just take a

There are lots of sites and blogs on the web which purport to be about productivity.  Many of these are about what might be termed 'personal productivity' - time management, self-motivation, etc.  This set me thinking. Is there a natural connection between national productivity, organisational productivity and personal productivity? My own view - based solely

I can be as guilty as the next person is hailing specific concepts and practices as being important determinants of higher productivity.  But we should stop searching for the 'secret' - the panacea - and concentrate on the basics. Productivity is about good organisation, good planning, effective design of facilities, systems and processes, effective motivation