Bill foots the bill

Bill Gates is continuing his commitment to improving the productivity of smallholder farmers by making available nearly $200m in grants for projects aimed at helping the farmers. He called on the big UN food agencies to work together to create a global productivity target for small farmers. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has committed more than $2bn to smallholder farmers since 2006, and this latest amount will be reinvested in projects covering new varieties of drought-tolerant maize, vaccines for livestock and training for agro-dealers to equip and train farmers. "If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture," Gates told the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) in Rome recently. "Investments in agriculture are the best weapons against hunger and poverty, and they have made life better for billions of people. The international agriculture community needs to be more innovative, co-ordinated, and focused to help poor farmers grow more. If we can do that, we can dramatically reduce suffering and build self-sufficiency." Gates urged Ifad, the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to commit to a concrete, measurable target for increasing agricultural productivity. He also called on them to support a system of public score cards in the interests of transparency for themselves, donors, and the countries they support. "The goal is to move from examples of success to sustainable productivity increases to hundreds of millions of people moving out of poverty," said Gates.

A few simple rules

Most workplaces have rules ... but often these are 'conventions, unwritten but largely abided by.

This is OK until someone decides to break those conventions.

Unless the rules are codified, it becomes very difficult to enforce them. (Think about public establishments that have a dress code of 'smart casual' ... who defines smart ... or casual for that matter.)

So it is worth writing down the rules - what do employees do with their coats when they arrive, can they eat and/or drink at their workstation, what should happen at break times, when can those breaks be taken .. and so on.

It will make the organisation more productive if people know how they should behave under a range of circumstances. 

There is no need to be heavy-handed with this ... just issue a 'reminder' of the already-established rules - for everyone's safety, convenience and efficiency.

Leave room for the melody

When you hear musicians talk, two common threads about being a good performer are ... play for the band ... and Quality is about what you don't play as well as what you do.

In buisness, the first clearly equates to the need to be a good team-player ... to consider and respect the roles and responsibilities of other members of the team ... and not to get in their way.

The second can be paralleled with the need to plan ahead and execute only those tasks that add value. Fire-fighting and wasteful activities (necessary because you didn't plan effectively) make you look busy but they contribute nothing to the 'quality output'.

So, next time you are feeling busy - make sure you know where the melody is - the real value of your activity.

What is too much?

There has been significasnt controversy in the UK in recent weeks about the size of executive pay bonuses ... especially for executives in companies that appear to be performing badly.

So, when is too much pay simply too much?

Impossible to say ... but the differential in pay in the West generally, but especially in the US and UK, has reached impossible levels. The ratio of executive pay to the pay of the lowest paid is now abnout 200 times. 20 years ago it was about 50 times.

The rich are getting richer ... and have continuesd to do so throughout the economic crisis.

Now, that is just plain wrong!

Shared values

Managing people is often held up to be a key part of managing a business. However, too often, what is meant by this is manipulating people.

My experience is that if you and your employees have (broadly)shared values... and you manage processes effectively... AND you train and develop people properly .... then people manage themselves.

If they do, they should be rewarded - if the business is successful, people should share some of that benefit.

Shared values should lead to shared value.

The Jobless Recovery

There is growing evidence that a number of economies are making (weak) recoveries from the depths of the depression.  These recoveries are not being matched by a rise in employment - unemployment remains stubbornly high in most countries.

This, however, suggests that productivity is rising ... and if we can maintain that trend - as firms do start to take on workers - we might get a 'real' - and 'strong' - recovery.

Do not expect answers from consultants

Too many people do expect consultants to answer their questions and solve their problems. Of course sometimes the problems are so specific and obvious that consultants can indeed solve them.

In many organisations,though, the 'problems' are not that simple. The job of a consultant then is to help us understand that problem ... so that we can work out our own - tailored - solution which fits in with our mission, our aims, our way of thinking and our way of going about things. Then it might work!