One question I am often asked is “given that you are always going on about effectiveness, what’s the difference between efficiency, productivity and effectiveness?” The easiest way to answer the question is with an example. Let’s take the health service. A productive health service sees as many patients as possible…
The problem with trying all the techniques we have discussed in these blogs is how to be effective when others are not. How many times have you had everything organised, you have employed the Ivy Lee Method, your day or week or month is organised and someone comes along with…
Having goals is important to ensure we are moving in the right direction but how to make goals effective? That’s the question. Goals can only be effective if there is an overall objective. Once we know the objective we can begin goal setting but how many people, businesses and organisations…
Education is typically based around a syllabus and exams to test learning against the syllabus but how effective is top down learning? Throughout the history of mankind it has been important to train large numbers of people to be able to work to predetermined instructions. First in the fields, then…
Note taking is a vital part of personal and business life but why are handwritten notes more effective than typed? In an article written in Science News For Students https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/handwriting-better-for-notes-memory-typing as well as many other studies it has been found that handwritten notes are better than typed for learning and memory…
Much emphasis is put on recycling but we need to understand why recycling is not effective. To be effective we must be moving toward our ultimate goal. If our ultimate goal is net zero or even negative carbon production then recycling is not effective. Standard wisdom says that we should…
Why do bad managers hate work from home? We have recently heard many managers objecting to their staff working from home. The most recent of these is Jacob Rees-Mogg a man whose ideas of work are firmly based in the industrial revolution and have never moved on. So why do…
When I first started looking into the four day week it seemed like a good idea, but recently it got me thinking and now I ask myself “Is The Four Day Week A Good Idea?” I think not. Let me explain. If the reason that people work is to pass…
I read an article today about how a poor management decision lead to a company losing a fortune as a result of ignoring the request of a worker and it got me thinking – Why do we need management? It’s clear that we need leaders and strategic decision makers but…
The Definition Of Work Needs To Change If you go to the dictionary the definition of work is: An activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result or: A task or tasks to be undertaken. I don’t like these definitions as gardening or…