The problem with most productivity measures is that they measure what is measurable rather than what really needs to be measured. That’s why so much is spoken about productivity, and so little is done to really improve it. With that in mind what is the difference between productivity and effective…
Many of you may be aware that one of the great loves of my life is the honey bee and I even have a small bee business Cotswold Bees Ltd Honey bees can teach us a great deal when looking at effectiveness and why productivity and efficiency are no longer enough…
The obvious answer to the question does productivity matter is yes, of course, but the obvious is nearly always dangerous. Let’s have a look at does productivity matter and if so, why? Measuring productivity is not easy because first you have to define it. Even the Office For National Statistics…
There’s a well known cartoon showing a person frantically mopping the floor as the sink overflows. It is obvious to everyone but the person with the mop that the effective thing to do is to turn off the tap. That’s why effective plumbers don’t mops floors. Whilst we can all…
Just over one year ago I started blogging regularly. Since then, one topic has run through everything, that of effectiveness. Not productivity and not efficiency. Effectiveness goes well beyond both of those. the time has now come to write a series of blogs on actually becoming effective. Welcome to How…
For most organisations the necessity to have people working in the old way of turning up at a certain hour, doing work for a certain number of hours and then going home at a certain hour has gone. This is even true in many areas of manufacturing where prior to…
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…
We constantly hear from UK Government that we need to be more productive. The cry goes out we are less productive than such and such country. My response is “so what!!” You can either be innovative or productive but not both. Let’s look at why trying to be innovative and…
I have no interest in football except that it got me thinking the other day – why do people go to football matches and what can it teach us about effectiveness? I realised the answer is a great example of why effective and efficient are not the same thing. For…
We constantly hear about the problem with productivity. So many people keep comparing productivity rates and saying that the company or country with the highest rate is the best. Productivity is measured in terms of output either per person or per hour but we need to think again and see…