Productivity without Burnout

Let's talk about productivity

Specifically, what leaders and organisations can do to raise productivity without productivity growth coming at the expense of their people's wellbeing.

Here are 3 ideas which will help you raise productivity in your organisation, sustainably.

1. Identify and name hidden beliefs about work.

One common hidden belief is that if someone is putting in the hours it means they must be a good employee.

But hours does not equal output. Longer hours are not necessarily productive hours. In fact, if we measure productivity as output per hour worked, the most productive people in an organisation are the ones who work smart, not long.

Let's make sure we value those people, and measure and reward outcomes not hours!

2. Reframe and realign goals as outcomes not inputs.

It is easy to measure inputs (e.g. chargeable hours) as a measure of success, and therefore set goals for a team or individual based on this input. However, it limits the scope to work smart and raise productivity if we are focused on optimising for the wrong thing.

What if, instead of billable hours, the goal was reframed as client problem solved. Or instead of reports delivered, the outcome is solutions identified.

Now the team is freer to optimise their time and client engagement to deliver the outcomemore efficiently. Rather than trying to bill more hours, or write more reports, they are trying to create as much value as possible for their clients. Not simple necessarily, but sensible.

3. Empower employees to innovate

For the first time in history, the productivity gains from technology investment (AI), depend not on a top down decision or training, but on each individual experimenting and innovating and getting incrementally more effective and efficient at their own jobs.

If people are focused on the right outcomes, and freed from the hours=outcomes hidden belief and given time to innovate, then real gains and unexpected breakthroughs will be made.

The next wave of productivity will be driven by motivation, not mandates. So let's incentivise and empower people to spend time on high impact work and reward them for outcomes

Productivity Tip of the Day

• Make focus time work for you

• Label your focus time calendar block with the task you will complete in it

• Use the pomodoro techniqueto maximise productivity and focus