The definition of productivity is generally thought to be the ration of output volume to the volume of inputs. Put another way, in order to increase productivity you must either reduce inputs or increase outputs. YouTube and the self help bookshelves are full of productivity improvement advice. We are constantly hearing that the UK needs to increase productivity but productivity without effectiveness is pointless.
Effectiveness is the degree to which something is successful in producing the desired result but productivity and effectiveness are only the same thing if your objective is to produce more with less. This seems like a silly objective to me. The best thing to do is set the objective and then set about achieving it in the best way possible.
As usual let’s look at a simple and possibly silly example that proves the point. Let’s take the fire service. In order for it to be more productive it must either put out the same amount of fires with less resources , or put out more fires with the same resources. If productivity is the objective then we must either continuously reduce the resources (not good news if your house is burning down and there’s no fire engine available) or ensure that more things burn down close to existing fires such that more fires can be put out using the same resources. Silly, but you get the point. If government were to want an effective (but not productive or efficient) fire service they would do the following:
Set the objective to be to stop things catching fire in the first place.
The majority of fires (nearly 50%) are caused by domestic cooking equipment and so a policy of increasing the safety of domestic cooking appliances and grants to enable the less well off to upgrade to modern, safer appliances would significantly reduce the number of fires.
The fire service could be kept at the same level in order to deal with major emergencies and this would be effective.
Seems obvious!! The problem is that by any numerical evaluation the fire service is now less productive and, given that they would be dealing with major incidents which take longer to bring under control, less efficient. When implementing your own productivity improvements be careful not to fall into the same trap. Productivity only works if it helps you move toward your ultimate objective. Less but better as Greg McKeown says in his book Essentialism.
Productivity with effectiveness is pointless. You don’t have to be productive to be effective although if you can be both and efficient at the same time then you’ve really cracked it.
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