Increase Effectiveness 71% in 5 Days

How to Increase Effectiveness 71% in 5 Days.

The average U.S. employee works at 35% of their potential. Ever wonder what your company could accomplish if your employees started living up to their potential?

Your Management Team Can Make the Difference.

One study showed a 71% improvement in 5 days by modifying a simple human process. Yet, 65% of American workers report their manager failed to practice this one simple human process even once during the past year. In fact, they do the opposite. It is the single biggest reason why employees quit their jobs. A conservative estimate reveals it costs our economy between $250 and $300 billion dollars every year.

Convert Your Average Performers into Star Performers.

Studies show that the highest IQ people outperform people of average intelligence only 20% of the time, while people of average intelligence outperform people of the highest intelligence 70% of the time. If IQ isn’t the critical factor in your highest performing employees, what is?

Ninety percent of high-performing employees have a behavioral attribute that almost all lower performers are missing. However, managers skilled in the art of human process improvement can nurture, mature and develop that missing attribute—transforming average performers into star performers.

Make More Money.

A study in Fortune magazine showed that of 58 large companies implementing Six Sigma programs to improve business processes, 91% of those companies have failed to financially match the S&P 500 ever since, proving that saving money is not what makes you money.

Apple makes money by inventing products such as the iPod & iPhone, the result of creativity, innovation and initiative—traits your managers either help or hinder by the human processes practiced each day in your organization.

What You Can Do to Make a Difference!

Human process improvement will dramatically increase productivity and effectiveness in your company. However, it means addressing and changing human behaviors, something business process experts are not trained or skilled in. They are also not the person who can change the human processes in your organization. You are! It’s not hard, it just takes some basic knowledge and some effort, but it will transform your organization. It’s the new frontier in productivity. Isn’t it time you got on board?

Gabriel Lawson

719-243-1277

http://www.gabriellawson.com

1: The Myth of Hard Work

The Five Myths of Productivity

Chances are you’re being asked to do more with less—but how? Instead of working harder, try doing less; you can maximize productivity and sharpen execution by learning the art of doing less and accomplishing more! New research presents us with data to reap major productivity gains—if we act on that information!

I will examine five myths that we assume leads to better productivity. Each myth has a valuable lesson in how to create more efficiency and effectiveness in an organization or in yourself.  Apply all five lessons and you will be more productive; guaranteed.

Myth: Working harder produces more!

A century of productivity studies proves the ‘Fatigue Factor’ is real. Studies show that working 60-hour weeks for 2 months yields the same productivity as working 40-hour weeks for 2 months. Even worse, working 60-hour weeks for 3 months yields an average productivity of only 19.5 hours.

Can an organization really afford this type of productivity? Henry Ford learned that 5 day workweeks yielded the same productivity as 6 and 7 day workweeks; equal production for less expense. Extensive studies prove the ‘Fatigue Factor’ applies even more so for today’s ‘knowledge workers’; yet, with over a 100 years of productivity studies to back up the ‘Fatigue Factor’, working harder is usually the first alternative evaluated when times start getting tough. Why?

Lesson: It’s easy to reward the wrong behavior.

We reward effort because it’s the most visible. Efficiency and effectiveness get much better results, but they’re harder to recognize, so we stick with what we know. However, common sense tells us real results come from a focus on efficiency (going faster & maintaining quality) and effectiveness (going in the right direction). We reward effort because it’s comfortable, visible, and it’s a habit. But rewarding effort is only one example of rewarding the wrong behavior.

Look around an organization and you will find numerous examples of behavior being rewarded that undermines efficiency and effectiveness.

Action: Assess ‘bad’ behaviors and identify ‘desired’ behaviors.

Rewarding the proper behavior means figuring out what ‘bad’ behaviors are being rewarded and what ‘good’ behaviors need rewarding. The simple step of assessing the behaviors of an organization pays huge dividends in creating a more effective and efficient organization. Start rewarding the right behaviors and watch your organization’s effectiveness increase; just imagine how much better you’ll sleep!

Here’s a simple exercise to help determine what behaviors need changing. Create a set of index cards with the following sentence on each: We ______ instead of ______. Hold a team meeting and have the team fill out as many cards as possible. Encourage both good and bad behaviors to be listed but don’t be surprised if the cards list mostly negative behaviors such as: we interrupt people in meetings instead of letting the person finish their thought. Toss them into the center of the table and then sort them according to category. Chances are you will have numerous cards that relate to the same topic such as ineffective meetings, communications, lack of design, inadequate testing, etc.

Effectiveness Step 1: Clearly identify ‘what’ you want to achieve.

When examining how an organization functions, the first step is to assess the behaviors being practiced. You must first determine what behaviors should be changed. Determining what is the common sense first step in any activity. Take a look around and you will be surprised at how many solutions are being implemented by people with no knowledge of what the actual problem really is. Eighty-six percent of software projects fail to meet cost, schedule, or functionality. The number one reason why they fail is a lack of requirement management: the failure to manage the what.

The ‘effectiveness pyramid’ is a five step process guaranteed to increase effectiveness & can be applied to any type of activity: a project, process, etc. Step one identifies what needs to be accomplished. What needs to be done to build a more effective organization: you must recognize bad behaviors & identify the desired behaviors.

Understanding what is the first step. It allows the right direction to be taken. Going in the wrong direction never gets you to your goals. Hence, the key to effectiveness is to start by making sure you are going in the right direction. Know what you are trying to do before you start makes all the difference.