Where Digital Tools Fail

Technology has been a significant driver of enhanced productivity over the last several decades.  Now many are predicting that AI will be the next major revolution.

However, the current crop of digital tools (including AI) is, by and large, aimed at backroom tasks and personnel.  Front line workers are certainly less well-served, even in service industries.

This is partly down to the nature of the tasks undertaken by these front-line personnel but even where appropriate or useful tools might be available, they are often let down by the way in which they are intended to be used - by the user interface (UI).

Most backroom and office staff are used to computers and the over-arching UI but most frontline personnel are not.  They find it difficult to adapt to interface concepts (windows and cursors, for example)  that are new to them and fail to relate to machine interfaces they may use elsewhere in their lives.

This is not solely a training issue.  There is a need to relook at user interface principles and practice and design new forms of interface, more appropriate to this new set of users.

Workers who struggle to integrate new digital tools into their workflows because of poor interface design are not going to improve their productivity.  They will become frustrated, less motivated snd even disengaged.

Potential productivity improvements may not be realised or may be sub-optimal.

Do Governments Innovate?

Most people - including me - would answer immediately - and say ‘No’.

However, things are not so simple.

Think of recent large-scale innovation changes.

Nuclear power for example.  Or space exploration.  Such massive innovations could not have happened without large-scale investment (and planning and coordination) from governments.

Other innovations cannot be fully diffused into markets without support from government t and government t agencies.  The rollout of electric vehicles cannot work without a sound national strategy for there provision of charging stations.

Spo, sometimes innovation needs a helping hand from government. This can be upfront in supporting massive technological change or post-event in supporting the diffusion snd uptake of new technologies.

Thus, new technology may take some time to show up in productivity figures.

This is, of course, exacerbated by the need in innovating firms to train the workforce in the use of new technology or systems - and promote the innovation to potential customers.

Government education and training policy also has to adapt and reflect technological change.

So change includes the major change (introducing a new technology, for example) and the few or many intangibles which must be changed to exploit the technology.

Governments clearly have a role to play here.

Governments perhaps do not directly innovate … but the support they provide can make the difference to the success is a new innovation in improving national productivity.

Trust is Key

Bad title.  There is no one key to productivity. Yet, research shows a strong correlation between mutual trust and performance in organisations.

Mutual trust means that:

• Senior leaders trust employees
• Managers trust their team members
• Managers are trusted by their direct reports
• Employees trust their fellow team members
• The senior leadership team is trusted by employees

If you can generate and then maintain such trust, you move forward.

Establishing and Improving such trust involves the training of employees and especially managers/leaders - on effective business communication and on how and why trust bonds are formed, and how they are broken. An innate sense of empathy in senior leaders is also very helpful.

So, ‘all’ you have to do (as ever) is to hire the right people for supervisory/managerial/leadership roles, and give them appropriate training and development opportunities.   Mentoring by an.established peer with the right qualities is also helpful.