Does education productivity matter?

We occasionally see reports or thoughts on the productivity of education - but it is a tricky situation to get to grips with ... partly because it is so hard to define outputs - and especially effective outputs.

Does it matter?  Isn't education something we just have to provide?

Well, it matters.  Just take a look at the investment in education of any advanced country.  Millions or billions of dollars.  If we could improve the productivity of that investment, we could release some of that funding for other purposes - social development, cultural development, better healthcare -  or whatever.

So, next time you see a debate, join in - add your views to the structured discussion necessary to advance thinking on how we address this tricky - but important - issue.

Natural Connections

There are lots of sites and blogs on the web which purport to be about productivity.  Many of these are about what might be termed 'personal productivity' - time management, self-motivation, etc.

This set me thinking.

Is there a natural connection between national productivity, organisational productivity and personal productivity?

My own view - based solely on my experience, but not on any formal, structured research - is that national productivity could broadly be regarded as the aggregate of organisational productivity, but that organisational productivity has little to do with any aggregate of personal productivity.  Organisational productivity is much more a function of the effectiveness of processes, systems and procedures - over which individuals have little control.

So, by all means encourage your employees to manage their time and their own workflow within the limits they do control - but don't expect that to have a significant impact on the performance of your organisation.

The Secret of Productivity is ....

I can be as guilty as the next person is hailing specific concepts and practices as being important determinants of higher productivity.

But we should stop searching for the 'secret' - the panacea - and concentrate on the basics.

Productivity is about good organisation, good planning, effective design of facilities, systems and processes, effective motivation of staff and all those other things the management textbooks tell us about.

So, the real 'secret' is about doing all those things well in pursuit of a clear and shared organisational mission.

If someone comes offering you a simpler 'secret', they are selling you 'snake oil'.  There are few shortcuts in life. 

Don't Break the Chain

A personal 'productivity' tip sometimes referred to as 'Seinfeld's Chain' after Jerry Seinfeld, the US comedian is a useful reminder of the need to 'keep at it'.  The story is that, when he started writing, Seinfeld would mark each day he had spent his planned time actually writing by putting a big red cross through that day on a large wall calendar.  After a few days he would have a chain of crosses - and it required him to keep putting in the effort so as not to break the chain.  Even when he had 'better offers' or when he felt ill, the motivation to keep the chain going was very strong.

The same approach can be used for anything which requires regular effort and activity - exercise, program coding, learning to play a musical instrument, etc.  it is not one long practice session that makes improvement - it is regular, incremental performance gains resulting from regular action.

The productivity professionals amongst you will recognise that this is the fundamental concept behind kaizen - regular, small improvements leading to a major impact on performance over time.

But it also applies at a more general level.  We all know we should ask 'Why?' regularly.

'Why do we do it like that?'
'Why do we do it at all?'  
'Why is it done here?'
'Why is it done like that?'

If we keep asking, we keep coming up with suggestions for change - and improvement.

So, tomorrow make sure you observe some work and ask questions about it ... and come up with some (perhaps very) small suggestion for improvement.

Then mark your 'Why X' on a calendar and START the chain.

Repeat daily until you have a chain of at least 5 Xs.

Now look at your calendar.  1 working week - 5 improvements.  If you don't break the chain, that will be 250 in the year  ... and a potential transformation of productivity and performance.