Have We All Been Conned?

Over the last several decades, especially since the second world war, we have been encouraged, and exhorted, to be more productive - to meet ever-stretching targets.  And we have done it. Productivity figures over these years have been quite good.

But what happened to those gains?

In most of the Western world, there has been a rise in the number of millionaires, and more lately billionaires.Some people have done very well out of the productivity boom. At the same time, then lower levels of society have endured at best only modest gains, often accompanied by worsening social conditions.

I subscribe to to the World Confederation of Productivity Science’s view that over the longer-term productivity must create social, economic, and environmental good - and if it does it helps create the infrastructure for world peace.

If we look at today’s world, the unequal distribution of productivity gains has done exactly the opposite - large numbers of people are dissatisfied with their lot and division and hate has been created.

Wake up, world! Share the gains of productivity improvement and we will be more willing to help your pursuit of further gains. 

Longer and Wider

Too many executive teams are focused on this quarter’s results - the results that will be pored over by stakeholders and analysts, eager for some sign of development, of improving fortunes, of higher profit potential.

The problem is that this narrow, short-term view tends to drive out the longer-term thinking that true strategic planning needs.

This thinking also encourages a silo mentality whereby each section or department concentrates on its own results - the overall result are therefore not optimised, they just fall out of there collective departmental results.

All of this should, of course, be negated by the connected factory or office as networked technologies provide the links necessary for connected thinking.  However, the technology cannot operate in a vacuum - it requires someone to set up the meaningful connections and to act on the information they produce.

On top of this technology, we need the ‘execution layer’ - a workforce that is recruited and trained to be engaged, participative, cooperative and continually developing.

So, the connected factory needs a connected workforce.  Employees need to engage with the technology and use it to assess their own performance and drive their own improvements.

An organisation that takes a longer-term, view of performance and productivity in pursuit of growth and long-term success  - and then creates an engaged and self-developing workforce - can push productivity and performance to new heights.

Working smarter, not harder (with technology)

Digital Transformation (now I notice coded DX) is often cited as the basis of future productivity gains.

True .... but working smarter, not harder is not solely the province of technology.

Technology can be a useful transformation catalyst but more important is the questioning of current working systems, processes and methods.

If we don’t do this, we tend to fall into the old technology trap of automating or speeding  up our current mistakes and inefficiencies.

So, reflect, think, challenge what you do - improve the flow, add more value … and then think of adding a technology layer to make further improvements.

And remember throughout, to involve your employees and keep up their engagement and continuously develop their skills.  

Stick with Lean

I read an article recently which suggested that forward-thinking companies need to merge their ‘traditional’ Lean practices with newer approaches such as AI.

Whilst accepting the principle behind this comment, I think it is a little unfair on ‘Lem’ to suggest that the Lean approach to performance development does not readily accept new ways of thinking or new technologies.

Lean is based on increasing value to customers and making processes flow more efficiently, through constant review and continuous improvement. Where technology can help do either of these,. It should be adopted - as part of Lean thinking, not as an addition.

So, you ‘gurus’ out there … by all means promote the benefits of new technologies or new approachers, but don’t denigrate existing approaches that have been used, over the years, on projects that have successfully incorporated new ideas and new technologies as and when appropriate.  One advantage of the Lean approach is that it adopts technology but recognises the need to change other aspects of a process to enable that technology to be optimised, and it recognises the need to ensure those affected by the introduction of the technology are involved in its adoption.  Introducing technology should, as far as possible, be done by or with those affected, rather than be something done to them.

Lean is an underlying basis of, and for, improvement.  Stick with it!