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THOUGHTS ON PRODUCTIVITY
Written by: Tom SuddesArticle Overview: 1. “PRODUCTIVITY IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR GOAL.” 2. PRODUCTIVITY ALWAYS TRUMPS ACTIVITY (3 STORIES) 3. “I MUST DO THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING POSSIBLE AT EVERY GIVEN MOMENT.”
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THOUGHTS ON PRODUCTIVITY
1. “PRODUCTIVITY IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR GOAL.”
As a serial entrepreneur (19 businesses) and a coach to hundreds of business and social entrepreneurs, I’m always trying to figure out how to be PRODUCTIVE.
Personally, and to help others be PRODUCTIVE, here’s the best way I’ve found to FRAME this pretty big topic.
“PRODUCTIVITY IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR GOAL.”
Eliyahu Goldratt is an Israeli physicist who has been described by Fortune magazine as a “guru to industry” and by Business Week as a “genius”.
He wrote a self-published, underground best seller entitled THE GOAL, which was eventually picked up by North River Press (1984, Revised 1986 and 1992) and became a best seller.
I’ve got a couple thousand books in my personal library and this may be one of the best ‘business books’ I’ve ever read. It’s not some dense, text-heavy business gobbley gook with charts, tables and Venn diagrams.
Here are the guts of the message on PRODUCTIVITY:
“PRODUCTIVITY is the act of bringing a company (organization or person) closer to its GOAL.”
Every ACTION that brings a company (organization or person) closer to its GOAL is PRODUCTIVE.
Every ACTION that does NOT bring a company (organization or person) closer to its GOAL is NOT PRODUCTIVE.
“What I’m telling you is…
PRODUCTIVITY IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR GOAL.”
THE GOAL is actually written as a fiction story. Jonah (the consultant) uses the Socratic method of asking questions of Alex (the manager) to completely turn around a faltering business/ manufacturing plant.
THE GOAL, on one hand, is complex, with terms like “throughput”, “bottlenecks”, “the theory of constraints” and “the cloud theory”.
Yet, at the same time, it is incredibly SIMPLE:
“PRODUCTIVITY IS MEANINGLESS UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR GOAL.”
If you buy into PRODUCTIVITY as a direct function of understanding your GOAL… then being able to define ‘SUCCESS’ and then being able to ‘MEASURE’ your progress are equally important issues.
THE CHALLENGE:
In order to be PRODUCTIVE…
In order for your team or associates to be PRODUCTIVE…
In order to be personally PRODUCTIVE…
You need to:
1. DEFINE SUCCESS. (Link to WOW-Email on Success)
2. SET GOALS.
3. CREATE MEASUREMENTS.
If used as a guide, and followed by ACTION, these 3 things will make you more PRODUCTIVE than you ever thought possible.
PRODUCTIVITY & ‘BOTTLENECKS’
Another great lesson in THE GOAL by Eliyahu Goldratt is the whole idea of “bottlenecks” or, as he calls them, “constraints”.
My shorthand on this is that there are existing constraints or bottlenecks in every one of our organizations, and certainly in every development, sales and entrepreneurial operations. I encourage you to read the book to learn more about Goldratt’s solution to these; but, in its simplest form, it comes down to:
1. IDENTIFYING the CONSTRAINT (bottleneck/problem).
2. DETERMINING creative SOLUTIONS (to the constraint).
3. EXECUTING (ACTING) (on the change).
Dr. Goldratt closes this wonderful book by stating these 3 things in a different way.
“You need a light bulb idea for a breakthrough. You need a ‘thinking process’ that forces and guides (you) relative to CHANGE and CHALLENGES.”
This thinking process should lead to answering 3 questions:
1. WHAT to change?
2. WHAT to change to?
3. HOW to cause the change?”
Again, PRODUCTIVITY is also a function of knowing answers to these 3 questions.
2. PRODUCTIVITY ALWAYS TRUMPS ACTIVITY (3 STORIES)
I believe one of the most meaningful ways to MEASURE success or achievement is by looking at both ACTIVITY and PRODUCTIVITY.
Clearly, ACTIVITY should produce PRODUCTIVITY. However, at the end of the proverbial day, you’ve got to look at the proverbial bottom line and determine if you are being truly PRODUCTIVE… or merely filling your time with meaningless ‘ACTIVITY’.
We have all worked for, seen or been around people who are hyper-active workaholics. “Working smart” vs. “working harder” is an anathema to these people. It’s all about working hard, and long and all the time.
Here are 3 wonderful stories that might help you better understand this idea of PRODUCTIVITY vs. ACTIVITY.
1. Harvey Cook was one of my first “teachers” on this concept of PRODUCTIVITY ALWAYS TRUMPS ACTIVITY in 1984. He wrote an incredible book (now out of print) called Scientific Success. Here’s what grabbed my attention: He was the #1 life insurance agent for the largest insurance company in the world… and he worked 2 DAYS A WEEK… 7 MONTHS out of the YEAR.
The rest of his time was spent with his family and working on personal growth. This was an incredible lesson for me at a very early age about the difference between ‘working smart’ and ‘working hard’.
2. Ross Perot began his sales career with IBM. He was given a very specific ‘ANNUAL SALES GOAL’ tied to the calendar year… and he achieved this entire yearly sales goal by January 19th!
When he went to this ‘bosses’ and asked for new goals and higher compensation, he was told, in effect, to just “rest on his laurels”.
Perot thought that was a pretty stupid way to run a business. He left. He started EDS. He made billions and billions of dollars. And that, as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story.
3. Tim Ferriss has a current best selling (and very challenging) book called THE 4-HOUR WORKWEEK. Twenty years ago, I don’t think this would have been a best seller nor would I have been able to actually understand it. Now, as the old song by the Monkees goes, “I’m a believer…”
The point of Ferriss’ book isn’t about literally working ‘four hours a week’. It’s about balance, achieving financial freedom through annuities (or, as he puts it, “making money while you sleep”). The title of the book alone forces you to think about your own PRODUCTIVITY, ACTIVITY, PRIORITIES, FOCUS, RESULTS, MEASUREMENT, GOALS, EFFECTIVENESS, etc.
The moral of these stories should be pretty obvious. We’re all given a choice: Be PRODUCTIVE or be (just) ACTIVE.
With that in mind, I would share my Productivity ‘Watch’ with you.
3. “I MUST DO THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING POSSIBLE AT EVERY GIVEN MOMENT.”
PRODUCTIVITY & THE WATCH
Tommy Hopkins is recognized as one of the best sales trainers of all time. A hugely successful author and live presenter, Hopkins has created a legion of followers over the last 25 years.
Tommy Hopkins gave me his watch after I attended one of his ‘boot camps’. Actually, it is much more accurate to say I ASKED him for his watch, and then he gave it to me. (To be fair, I also promised to buy thousands of dollars of his books and tapes. )
The watch that I have from Tommy Hopkins is pretty unique. As the second hand goes around, it says,
“I MUST DO THE MOST PRODUCTIVE THING POSSIBLE
AT EVERY GIVEN MOMENT.”
Talk about screwing up your life! If you live by this mantra (on the watch), it forces you to look at what you’re doing Every Given Moment and determining whether it is truly PRODUCTIVE!
I look at this shorthand acronym IMDTMPTPAEG almost every day. I’ve learned that being ‘PRODUCTIVE’ is not just around my ‘WORK’, GOALS or CAREER. I can be productive by taking a walk, working out, reading a great book, watching the talent at Cirque du Soleil, spending beach time with my family, or just sitting around the pool at Eagle Creek.
The CHALLENGE: Are you coming anywhere close to doing the ‘MOST PRODUCTIVE THING POSSIBLE at MOST GIVEN MOMENTS’???
Or are you filling your day with ‘Activities’? ‘Time Fillers’? ‘Quadrant IV Activities’? (Covey’s Not Important, Not Urgent Category)?
Are you COUNTING THE DAYS or MAKING EACH DAY COUNT?
Focus on Deliberate Creation Through Active Thought Processes
Historical Productivity Gains in Industry Generally
Minimize Meetings
Monetize Lost Productivity
The Power of Thought
Article Tags: best business books, best seller, bottlenecks, business week, company organization, dense text, fiction story, fortune magazine, goldratt, gook, guts, manufacturing plant, personal library, physicist, serial entrepreneur, social entrepreneurs, socratic method, theory of constraints, throughput, venn diagrams
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