Is it worth higher productivity?

The relentless rise of technology and the willingness of men to experiment means we are likely to see a merging of mankind and technology over the next couple of hundred years - producing real cyborgs.  These will be highly efficient and productive workers.

You might think this is good for your business.

However,  the human race as we know it will eventually disappear - unless we stop this trend.

We have the technology to create the future.  Do we have an appropriate ideology to match?  Are enough people (other than science fiction writers) thinking about the issues, the dilemmas, the controversies, the principles that will help us govern and mange this change.

I don't think so.  It will probably just happen - in ways we don't want. And it will be our fault!

Dressing properly

More firms are allowing workers to come to the office in less formal attire.  does this have an impact on productivity?

There is little research on the issue.  The arguments seem to boil down to:

allowing people to dress casually makes them more comfortable, more relaxed and more content - and this has a positive effect on their performance.

encouraging people to dress formally means they wear a 'business uniform' which puts them in the right frame of mind - and this has a positive effect on their performance.

Perhaps we should just offer people the right to choose.... within certain limits of course.

It seems to be an irreversible trend, anyway - perhaps we are better just accepting the fact - until and unless we get some evidence to make us think again.

Think about your current policy - and whether it is counter trend and counter-productive.

Breaking out of the Vicious Circle

Nations are (quite rightly) urged to improve educational standards and attainments to help boost national productivity.  An educated - and skilled - workforce is a key underpinning of higher productivity.

This is actually a vicious circle (or cycle).  Low education standards results in lower productivity - and lower productivity results in less money to invest in education. And the cycle continues.

Nations have to find some way to break out of the cycle. And wealthier countries who provide aid to developing countries should focus a great deal of their efforts on education and skills.

Its the 'teach a man to fish' paradigm.

At the level of the firm, organisations must concentrate on upskilling and empowering their workers - to realise their maximum potential.  This is your responsibility.  if enough firms do this, the national problem is solved.

Creative Sparks

We know that teams that share values tend to knit together better.  A culture in which people 'get on' and work for each other is considered to be productive.

Yet, tension can provide creative sparks; competition raises effort; oysters need an irritant to produce pearls.

So, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Allow team members a degree of freedom in which to be 'sparky, create and encourage (friendly) competition and rivalry.

You will end up with a more creative workforce. 

Leaning from the best?

Some countries are much more productive than others.

One would assume that this gives the less productive countries lots of scope to learn what works and what doesn't - and boost their own productivity ... but this doesn't seem to be the case.

This suggests that either those countries are not trying to learn the lessons ... or that the lessons and good practice are not easily transferrable from one country to another.

I find either of those difficult to accept.

(This is one reason that I regularly help organise the World Productivity Congress - the next one is in Bahrain in November, see www.wpc-bh.com.)  

Of course different climates, traditions, cultures and so on make a difference - but there are enough similarities between the ways in which the leading nations organise themselves to suggest there are generic lessons to be learned.

Perhaps politicians are the wrong people to learn them!

On the other hand when you benchmark your performance against similar organisations, you do learn, don't you?

After all, if others can do it, why can't you?

Trumped

As i write this, Donald Trump has just accepted the nomination as Republican candidate for the US presidency.

Now Trump is certainly a controversial figure and i am not going to give my  view on his suitability to be president - if for no other reason that, here from the U K, making any judgement is difficult

I am though interested in whether he will have any effect on US productivity - positive or negative.

He seems to appeal to a disaffected and disillusioned working class.

If they feel they are are at last being listened to, will they respond with greater engagement, greater enthusiasm for their work roles - ands greater productivity. Or will they soon find they have been sold a false promise and be 'turned off''.

Of course all of this assumes he is elected - and that is far from certain.

I will be watching with interest - as will most of the world!

So, remember to be careful what you promise - to your employees, your customers and other stakeholders.  Promises can come back and bite you.

Scale up and win

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI)together with Lloyds Banking Group, the ScaleUp Institute & Aston Business School, has launched a new report, Lifting the Trophy, profiling scale-up insights into raising productivity within firms.

• In 2013, 4% of firms contributed 17% to total UK productivity

• Between 2012 – 2015, over 18,500 businesses rapidly scaled-up their turnover – 650 of these were mid-market firms

• Within the scale-up community, highly productive firms are twice as common

• 8 out of 10 of the UK’s most productive businesses are located outside London

For more details, see http://bit.ly/29MPYAE.

So, firms that grow quickly also tend to grow their productivity - a double-whammy.  

What are you waiting for?