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 productivity?
The dictionary definition of productivity, and one that many use is “the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.” Here’s my problem. The rate of output per unit of input suggests that the more you get out or the less you have to put in, the greater the productivity, but this ignores the objective. If you compare the rate of output per unit of input of a factory producing mass produced paintings with Monet painting one of his masterpieces it is clear that Monet is deeply unproductive. Monet actually worked on his Water Lilies series for over thirty years. To be precise it took Monet over thirty years to knock out 250 paintings, That’s just over eight a year. With the same resources your average Chinese mass produced painting factory can do the same thing in less than two weeks. Monet was hopelessly unproductive. You might say this is a silly example, but it is so often the extremes that show up the realities. If the objective is number of paintings the Chinese are more productive, if the objective is originality then Monet beats them every time. This is the difference between productivity and effective productivity. Effective productivity is based on how effectively you achieve the objective, and ignoring the objective by doing the simplistic, but easy, output per unit calculation is very dangerous. That’s also why it is so dangerous comparing the productivity of one country with another, it ignores the objective.
A more realistic example of effective productivity is this. If you make handmade original cakes then you are hopelessly unproductive compared with Mr Kipling if you use the standard measure of productivity, but try and move yourself to that level of productivity and you will kill your business where the objective is quality not quantity.
If you want to run an effective business, or you want to be effective yourself, or have that wish for your staff or team please remember effective productivity is always better than simplistic productivity.
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