In “Why Is Productivity So Weak? Three Theories” from The New York Times on April 28th, the author’s “depressing scenario” suggests that innovations in technology (such as a computer on every desk) and management techniques (such as outsourcing noncore functions) have been fully implemented across corporate America and will produce no additional productivity improvements. While I don’t think this is entirely true, I suspect we are seeing diminishing returns. But what that means is that we are ready for the next big innovation in workplace productivity! Corporate America is buried in time-wasting confusion. Clarity is the answer. Here are just a few examples:
“Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk” on body language has been viewed 32,728,866 times, more by now, for a reason. This isn’t the same old talk about how your body language affects others. She’s talking about how your body language affects you! We all know that a tall posture, firm handshake, and smiling eye contact will make a better impression than slouching and looking down. That’s a no brainer. What you may not realize is how much it changes the way you feel about yourself. Try it right now! Stand tall, shoulders back, breathe deeply, eyes straight ahead, smile. Doesn’t that make you feel stronger, more powerful, more successful?
The tangible outcomes of progress are easy to measure: sales, profits, market penetration, and yield, as well as number of products, parts, members, programs, etc. Many employees are pretty clear about their goals in relation to these type of results. But only those on the “production line” can really tie their own productivity to these metrics: Parts per hour, sales per week, hours per production, etc. Everyone else spends a lot of time talking, thinking, writing, and reading, often with little to show for it. As a matter of fact, the farther they are from the assembly line, the more time spent this way and the less time spent producing tangible value for which customers are willing to pay.
“Follow your passion!” We’ve all heard that advice. And while it sounds like nirvana, beware! The tasks you love can destroy your productivity. To me, your talents and passions are revealed by the things you can’t not do. The activities that perk you up no matter how tired you are. The ones that suck you in and make you late to dinner or keep you up way past your bedtime. Your passion could be almost anything from making people happy to creating order out of chaos to writing computer code. The more closely your talents and passions are aligned with your job responsibilities, the happier you should be with your job. But just because you are following your passions, doesn’t mean you are as productive as you should be! Here is why and what you can do about it:
A few weeks ago, I wrote “8 Secrets Smart People Know About Time Management.” Among other things, I explained that there are five effective ways to deal with having too much to do and one of those is to accomplish more faster. People try to do this all the time. They buckle down. They shut out distractions. And then they beat themselves up for failing. Why do they fail? Because they aren’t really doing anything differently. You know the old adage about the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. By that definition, most people are nuts. Every week, every day, they do essentially the same things and hope that somehow they will get caught up. On top of that, people are faced with endless advice ranging from little tips to vast programs like Lean. Most people do not have time to digest all that they read or invest heavily in a process like lean. So here’s a simple way to reconsider your work and find a shorter, faster path. No new vocabulary or special tools are required. You can get as fancy as you like – but do that later. To get started immediately, embrace these staggeringly simple steps to accomplishing more:
What was on your list to do last year that you never did? I’m asking about both professional and personal goals here. Was it important? If whatever you didn’t accomplish wasn’t important, forget about it! I don’t care how many people you told, if it wasn’t important and you never got to it, don’t waste another brain cell thinking about it! If it was important, figure out why you didn’t accomplish this important task. If you can’t find the cause, you can’t eliminate the cause, and your goals this year are likely to suffer the same fate.
1. You can’t manage time, you can only manage yourself. There are 24 hours in each day. You can’t change that. As long as you focus on managing time – searching for systems, lists, and tools – you are ignoring the real issue: how to manage yourself. 2. “Too much to do” and “Not enough time” are victim words. Every time you repeat those words, you are letting yourself off the hook for managing yourself. You are blaming circumstances beyond your control and subscribing to victimhood. Of course there is too much to do! Of course there is not enough time! Get used to it! 3. Too many priorities means no priorities. You can not have too many priorities. By definition. Priorities are those top few tasks that deserve attention next. If you have too many, you have none. You have to know your top few priorities at any time.
Here are the nine top reasons why you and your employees can’t finish 40 hours worth of work in 40 hours. 1. Meetings are consuming 30 – 50% of your day and accomplishing far too little. The average employee spends 30% of their time in meetings – that’s 12 hours – a full day and a half. Executives spend upwards of 50% – that’s often 40 hours out of 60 to 80. I’ve never met a meeting that couldn’t be cut in half or better. The missing ingredient is clarity. You don’t need more rules, advice, or formats for running meetings, you need clarity. There are only six outcomes for any meeting and if you don’t know which one you are pursuing at any moment, you are wasting time. If you and your employees know exactly what must be different when the meeting ends, your company would have half as many meetings that last half as long.
You have too much to do. Some days you feel productive, others leave you with too little to show for all of your time. Why can’t you be one of those super productive people who chunks through tasks and goes home at 5:00? You can if you practice four simple skills. 1. Choose To join the ranks of the super productive, or even just the very productive, you have to know what you are trying to accomplish at any given moment. I’m not talking about major goals here, I’m talking about what will be different at the end of the next hour or quarter of an hour or even five minutes. What, specifically, is the next outcome you must achieve? How will you know when you are finished? Without clarity, you are wandering and, while it might be interesting, even fun, wandering is rarely productive. You don’t want to just ”work on something for awhile.” Choose a specific destination and you will reach it faster. The importance of Choosing does not depend on the type of task. Whether you are writing a proposal, running a meeting, or developing products, you will be most productive if you know exactly what success looks like each step of the way. What is the purpose of the proposal, what are the most important points, and which one are you working on right now? What decisions, plans, or problems will be resolved by your meeting and how will you get to each? What do you need from whom to get things moving?
During my early days in the corporate world, one of my jobs included developing the software that synchronized and backed up all the data needed to control the generation and transmission of power for Great Britain. The project manager made the rounds every Friday to update his Gantt chart. He stepped through each activity and asked me for an updated percent complete. I struggled with this exercise and finally, when my tasks hit 67%, I refused to play. Despite my long list of open tasks marked two-thirds complete, I promised him we’d be finished on time. This tracking ritual continued weekly and every Friday he could hardly contain his anger with me. He told me my group was going to ruin the whole project. I told him not to worry. My promises did nothing to relieve his anxiety. Meanwhile, all the other leads were marching steadily toward the finish line and keeping him happy. 70%. 75%. 78%. 80%. 82%. To increase the pressure on the laggards, the charts were posted on the wall. Practically everyone was in the 90s and my group still showed 67%.