Maybe it’s time we stop thinking technology alone is the key to productivity
Businesses look with hope when new software is released. Could this be the ONE? Software that truly delivers the turn-key productivity solution every organization dreams of? As a veteran of over twenty years in both business and adult education and training, I think it’s time to let go of the mystical belief that software on its own will magically improve organizational productivity. Technology is the mechanism by which corporate data is stored and categorized, but the productivity power lies in HOW an organization chooses to leverage it. Increased productivity doesn’t automatically happen simply by containerising data into a central location. …
What Happens if it Breaks?
I was recently working with a client who had a manual process that their team would go through to produce regular reports in Excel. It wasn’t a high level or challenging process, it was basically do this step, then do that step and so forth until they reached the end and the resultant “report” was created. Whilst this worked a bulk of the time, problems arose when something wasn’t quite right, and they needed to troubleshoot the formulas or they recognised that results were not what they should be. All they had been shown was a process. They never understood …
Do You Know Your Peak Time?
At 5am every day, alarm or no alarm my body tends to wake me up. A sleep in for me is 7am which might occasionally happen on a weekend or public holiday. I love to get up and exercise, then after my first coffee (a freshly ground, single origin from a Fair-Trade roaster) I’m ready to go! I focus on my highest priorities first thing so they can be ticked off my ‘to do’ list and then deal with everything else after that. By about 4pm I’m starting to slow down, and by about 6pm I know I am at …
Sometimes it’s just a NO!
I recently received a call from an organisation wanting me to speak at an upcoming event. They had been referred to me by someone in their organisation who had seen me speak previously and thought they would reach out to check on my availability and fee. We arranged a call to find out a bit more and for me to determine if I felt like I was a “fit”. This is something I do with EVERY potential client. In our conversation we discussed what they wanted as the outcome from the event, which, although it was like my topic, was …
The Collegiality Framework
If you are having trouble with your team, getting them to connect or want to help them improve their productivity it’s really not that hard to get them back on track. All it takes is a little time any effort and really zero investment. I’ve created The Collegiality Framework that I use with my clients. Basically, it is a metaphorical circle where teams are brought together and encouraged to come up with about what working for them, what’s not working for them, and what they need help with as far their everyday technology use is concerned. It’s not until you …
Having a mentor makes workers happier in their jobs.
According to CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey1 conducted earlier this year, workers who have a mentor are more likely to be happy in their job. In my work with clients, my goal is to add value so when I leave the organisation it is in a much better state than when we first started. I view having mentors, and formal and informal knowledge sharing frameworks as keys to retaining staff, increasing engagement and fast-tracking productivity. When workers feel engaged and valued they enjoy their work more, and when they enjoy their work they are more productive. When an organisation has a …
There is no “ab cruncher” for technology!
I regularly go into organisations and meet frustrated people, and as a result, I get frustrated! Why do I get frustrated? Because so often people made things harder than they needs to be. Everybody is looking for the “Ab Cruncher”. The one piece of technology, the tool or the process that is going to make our lives perfect. Then when that happens when I just sit back and enjoy the ride, right? That’s how it works isn’t it? Not at all. Reality is everyone is looking for the magic pill or thing that will fix everything. It does not exist. …
Respect
It’s natural walking on the street or driving a car to be respectful of those around us. We keep left or right, depending on what part of the world we are in. This respect ensures that most of the time we know what to expect. When working with teams, I often meet staff who express frustration when their everyday programs change or don’t do what they expect them. For better or worse technology is here to stay. Realistically our everyday technology is simply hardware or software designed to fast track tasks in our lives and increase our efficiency so we …
You may already have what you need you just don’t realise it.
I work a lot inside organisations with their teams and one thing I’ve observed a lot lately is the fact that they don’t realise how much knowledge is sitting in a room and instead choose to go Google to look for answers. I was recently working with a client and we had 13 people from within organisation in one room they had all invested three hours of their time and we were working out what were the things that they needed to know, or wanted to know to make their life easier. As we had conversations and discussed different ideas, …
Never underestimate the importance of planning
On a recent trip to the US, I visited the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock Arkansas. Spread out over three floors, the library houses all manner of information related to the Clinton Presidential era including a reproduction of President Clinton’s oval office – with replica furniture and artifacts. Of the many items on display that chronicled the Clinton era was a glass case that housed two pages of one of President Clinton’s State of the Union addresses. The State of the Union Address is delivered by the President of the United States to Congress at the beginning of each …
