What Are We Missing?

We all know that productivity growth has slowed over the last decade. There have been numerous shocks to the global economy and trading system - the biggest being the financial crisis and the COVID epidemic - and catalysts such as advancing technology have lost their impetus as dramatic change (in the technology) has slowed.  Of course some predict AI will spur a new growth phase but simply waiting for this to happen is too passive an action for these troubled times.

So, what are we missing In our search for solutions?

Well, we do seem to have forgotten the human factor.  The global challenges mentioned above have significantly changed the attitude of many employees to their work.  Work is now simply seen as a transactional process of earning enough to live on and provide the next holiday.  The number of those seeking to  pursue longer-term, meaningful careers  has declined.  We need to re-motivate and re-excite those dulled by COViD, by working from home, by the continuing fear of redundancy.

Secondly, the reliance on technology to provide productivity growth means we have forgotten to concentrate on the basics- on the regular, ongoing, consistent search for improvements to products and processes. 

If we can get our employees involved in the search, we 'kill two birds with one stone'.  We get increased engagement of the workforce and we get more incremental improvement.

This takes real involvement of the senior team - and it needs people versed in productivity principles and improvement tools and techniques to work with the workforce to help them bring about improvement.  (Productivity initiatives are always more successful and more sustainable when they are something done WITH the workforce, rather than TO the workforce.)

It is not 'rocket science' but nor is it easy.

So, I suggest you commit now - and start immediately. 

Stop Typing

It always seemed odd to me when many managers lost their secretaries and took over their own typing - simply because word processing had been invented.  Most also organised their own diaries, scheduled their own meetings and did much of their own financial planning and budgeting using the new wonder - the spreadsheet.

Now things look as if they are about to change.

This does not mean new opportunities for secretaries and personal assistants.   It means that the latest wonder software - in the form of AI systems and services - will revolutionise these basic tasks.  In particular, the latest AI:

• Uses speech as its primary input - and for most people speech is much faster and less error-prone
• Is 'agentic' - it uses software agents to carry out tasks by interacting with your apps and your data

This will make the creation of appointments, tasks, reminders and documents far easier.  They will operate in the background, doing what they need to do when certain triggers are activated or when they are told to do so.

The productivity of administrators and managers should rise - but only, of course, if they are doing the right things - and can make the AI do the right things.

Those of you who have worked with AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and so on, will know that the important thing is the 'art' of creating the right prompt - making sure you ask the right question or issue the right instruction.

A lot of people are going to need instruction in 'expressing intent' - efficiently setting the forward activities of their new, AI assistants.

In time these 'assistants' will become more sophisticated - not simply listening to your commands and acting on them - but observing your environment, listening to what others say to you - and what you say to others.  This is known as 'ambient AI' - staying in the background observing and listening and using what its sees and hears instead of formal prompts to decide on its actions - or its suggestions and recommendations.

Eventually - and in the no-so -distant future - we should have tools that respond to how we work, rather than expecting us to meet their requirements.

Its a Mess

 Politicians in the UK have been groin g on asb out 'growth' for some time now.  All major political parties  have 'growth on their agenda and claim that they are the pretty that can deliver this growth.

Now you and I know that growth - in this context - is really a shorthand for productivity' since any growth must be via productivity gains if it is to be sustainable - especially if, as in the UK the population (and especially the working age population) is declining. Worse still, an increasing portion of the working age population is on benefits wityha rapid growth in those claiming benefit - and not working - due to mental health problems

I believe that this is due to societal change which increasingly medicalises natural parts of the human condition such and anxiety and  worry, People who are worrying about just about anything now 'cannot cope' and must be taken out of to work situations.  

The blame is often laid at the door of the COVID pandemic as if this changed the mental condition off millions of people.  

My own theory ids that we should 'blame' the practice of 'working from home' (WFH).  Many people got used to WFH during the pandemic,.  This. changed working routines completely and gave people lots of little chances for mini-breaks and  distractions  - meaning that those people got used to diverting their attention sway from the actual work often and occasionally for long periods while they did some other non-work related task.  When they returned to work - or sometimes only thought about returning to work - they realised they were returning to a disciplined, supervised situation where they would not have the ability for these distractions and diversions.

The UK government has announced a plan to get young people back to work by creating training opportunities and apprenticeships.  I approve.  This means that those young people that DO want to work may get an opportunity to do so,  Any action that provides opportunities for otherwise excluded individuals is a positive move. However the government has to address the growing welfare bill alongside this.  The productivity problem is a large one and needs tacking from all angles.

Inspiring Others

Leadership is a difficult concept to 'bottle'.  I have studied leadership theory and even contributed a little to it.  Yet I would have trouble boiling the concept down to a couple of sentences - to go in a dictionary, for example.  

This is partly because there are different kinds of leadership - for different types of organisation, for different situations and for different tasks.  This is why transferring leaders from one sector to another does not always work.

However some of the 'softer' elements of leadership are more transferrable.  Take the notion of inspiring others to better contributions and higher performance.  This is something that most leaders, and many of their followers, think is important.

We need people to share the mission and vision, to understand the priorities, to want to maximise  their contribution. We want them to ask themselves everything morning, "What can I do today to help 'move the needle'?; "How can I best help my team?"  They will only do this if they do share the overall mission and they trust the leaders of the organisation to make decisions on the basis of shared values.  If these factors are in play, they will accept that the organisation sometimes has to take difficult decisions

It is the job of the leadership not only to communicate and espouse these values and the mission and vision but to live them - to act in accordance with them in everything they do and to keep employees informed of what is happening - and why.  This creates unifying factors that 'glue' disparate parts of the organisation together with mutual trust and respect

There is a possibly apocryphal, story of JFK being shown round the NASA Cape Canaveral space facility. He came across a janitor sweeping the floor and asked him, "What do you do here?"  The janitor replied, "I help get our astronauts to the moon".

Now that's the attitude you beed to try and create?

Heed the Lerssons ffrom other Industries

It is amazing how so many sectors fail to observe, and adopt (or adapt) successful moves in other sectors.  One of the most successful innovations (and productivity improvement moves) of my lifetime is the introduction of the containerswithin the logistics sector.  We are so used to seeing ships laden with hundreds - or even thousands - of containers that we forget that this was a relatively recent (1950s).innovation 

Before this, materials from ships were unloaded piece by piece and the turnaround for a large cargo ship could have been weeks.  Goods were also much more likely to be damaged by the loading/unloading process and thefts from ports were more common. So, the container solved a number of problems and was adopted across much of the logistics sector to allow for more efficient transfer of goods from one carrier to another - ship to train, for example.

The result was a revolution in global transport (and global trade) with much faster turnaround times and reduced shipping/transport costs.  All because someone had the bright idea to adopt a standard sized container.

Another  important innovation was the development of the pallet for storing/loading/transporting materials - meaning handling equipment and storage facilities could be made to established standard dimensions.

So logistics has some good practice - and important lessons.  How many other sectors can point to such successes.   

For example, the construction sector has been slow - indeed, reluctant - to adopt modular construction techniques. Experiments and small-scale innovations have been tried but there is no large-scale move towards modular components for buildings.

Perhaps there are good reasons for this but I cannot see them.  Surely there are enough common factors among buildings of particular types to allow for a degree of standardisation and the use of pre-fabricated components.

The lesson here is that if you are trying to improve productivity and innovation, you should widen your horizons when looking for ideas and potential improvements.  

Look at your competitors by all means but also look at other industries and sectors.

You Need Soft Skills

I've spent a lot of my life helping individuals and organisations acquire the skills needed to help improve productivity.  In doing so, I have observed that it is often HOW changes are implemented that determines their effectiveness and their success

Too many managers think their role is to be tough, uncompromising leaders doing unto the workforce what is needed to make them efficient.

However, I have regularly pointed out that workers are rarely inefficient because they are not working hard enough.  Much more likely is that the overall system within which they work does not allow them to be fully efficient.  The organisation of working systems and processes causes delays, bottlenecks, quality problems and employee frustration.  However, they might still reject proposed changes from management because of their fear of the unknown ,their misguided understanding of the changes and what they mean for this own work role snd well-being.

In such situations, it is the job of the manager to devise changes and improvements that will improve productivity but importantly also  to explain these changes in ways that allow employees to understand the reasons for the changes, the effects of the changes snd the longer-term conditions the will bring about. The manager needs to explain how the changes will be carried out and why they are not threatening to employees.

It is these softer skills of communication and explanation that can ensure an effective change process  .... skills which must be grafted onto - or rather be an integral part of - the technical change process.

Learn to be soft when needed!  Make sure everyone is on the same side.

Productivity improvement must be something that is done WITH the employees not TO the employees.

 

What Should You Be Doing?

Most people find, or think, they have too much to do.  Naturally, they try and concentrate on those things that they consider to be the most important.

However even this can be fraught with difficulty. If you are not clear about your long-term goals, deciding what is important is difficult.

Here is a 'trick' worth trying.

List the three things that you think are the really important goals in your life/career.  Notice 'goals' not 'dreams'.

Then for each one of these core goals, list the 3,4 or 5 tasks you need to accomplish in order to further the core goals.   

That gives you approximately 15 tasks you need to carry out to make progress towards reaching your goals.  Now divide these tasks into short, medium and longer term.  This gives a very broad outline future schedule.

Is this scheduled achievable? Think carefully!

If not, you need to :

Remove some of the tasks from your schedule; or

Move some tasks into the next further away time period - say, from short-term to medium-term.

Eventually, you get what you consider a realistic schedule. 

Now you have to create weekly or daily actions that help you carry out these tasks. 

Again check that the resulting schedule of activity is realistic.

Then start working through these daily or weekly tasks.

At the end of each week, review progress and amend the schedule if necessary.

If you are not making reasonable progress, it suggests the tasks/aims are not sufficiently important to you

Think again about your goals and aspirations.  Think critically and be realistic.  

Reflect, rinse and repeat.