Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve - Roger Lewin (British Author) Business or work is always about facing pressures which comes from domestic competitors, startups, low cost providers. We all have heard this phrase - "improve productivity" as the mantra and has been preached over and over again to us. Year after year I am pretty sure that each organisation has a key goal called productivity increase and associate a percentage to it. Let me take a step back and see what comes to the mind immediately as I say the word productivity.
These are a few of the things which every team member and middle managers get every year when this word occurs in their townhall. Senior management always tend to think that productivity increase has a direct impact of cash inflow or profit margins. This is a sad state of affairs across the world - teams works hard and squeeze that 3% target and before they can start to enjoy the next 3% comes as the next year goal. I read a case study recently and would like to condense it and tell you the extracts of it only. A large mineral extraction facility in the US was trying to squeeze more productivity and the team felt that they had reached the limits. The company was the best-in-class in its output which was its cost per tonne of ore moved, but investors wanted more. They then hired a prestigious management consulting firm to help them find opportunities to improve. The firm performed a benchmarking study between many aspects of this business and its peers: they came up with about 15% total possible price improvement, with about 10% of that being termed “achievable.” The opportunities included dozens of arduous or expensive changes the company could make to different parts of the business. It was nice to know that they were working at their optimum level but the teams were paranoid in approaching the investors again. So one of the engineering leads came up with a suggestion that they could approach their cost targets from an angle of problem solving. The team identified new problems in the business (strategy and process) that could be solved which could theoretically bring a 60% reduction in their cost per tonne. What made the difference? By dropping the dead weight of “productivity” efforts and converting to finding and solving hard problems, they radically changed their perspective. There were two steps to their success:
Your business can do the same. What to know how?
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Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive. George Bernard Shaw We all want to succeed and are also willing to put a lot of effort towards working for it, but certainly, struggle where to begin. I guess the first step is to actually identify those habits that make a person successful. In the world, TIME is a very limited resource and hence many of them do not wish to use that for all tasks. It's for this reason that I believe that Steven Covey had actually written the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". He precisely wanted us to save our research time and use it for a better purpose. This book is a self-improvement book. It is written on Covey's belief that the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions. In order to change a given situation, we must change ourselves (quote taken from MK.Gandhi), and in order to change ourselves, we must be able to change our perceptions. I know what you are feeling now - this blog author says most people do not have time and yet he is insisting that we read this massive book of 423 pages? He is certainly nuts. These days, people look for quick fixes. They see a successful person, team, or organization and ask, "How do you do it? Teach me your techniques!" But these "shortcuts" that we look for, hoping to save time and effort and still achieve the desired result, are simply band-aids that will yield short-term solutions. They don't address the underlying condition. "The way we see the problem is the problem," Covey writes. We must allow ourselves to undergo paradigm shifts -- to change ourselves fundamentally and not just alter our attitudes and behaviors on the surface level -- in order to achieve true change. Yes, I get it, most of us are either too lazy or work under the pretext that we do not have time. So I invested some of my time in trying to summarize the entire book into a short blog. When I started I found that it was really difficult for me to make into a short blog since each habit by itself was a blog. Then I went back to the drawing board and thought that the best way that someone can remember these things are only through humor. So I decided to make my explanations through comic videos. I thought which comedian should I try - but then who else than Tamil cinema's own Laurel and Hardy - Senthil & Goundamani. Firstly I have to be honest that none of the comedy clips were taken for this book and I had to spend a lot of time analyzing the entire gambit of comedy scenes by this duo to match the tips which I want to explain. They may not be a perfect match but I think I have done some justice to the topic. Without wasting much of your eye energy - let's go to the 7 habits. Are you ready? A decent plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week - George S. Patton, former Officer in the U.S. Army For those who have missed the previous post which was about the importance of having to set a goal. Here is a recap: Everything in this world is there for a purpose. To find the purpose is the most difficult task. Once you find it, then your life is on overdrive on a smooth highway. To find this rather elusive all important data (purpose in life) also we need to set a goal. So goal setting is actually the most important thing for your success. Goal setting is fundamental to any type of achievement. If you want to live a life of purpose, setting goals will increase your odds of reaching your desired outcome. You can read the full transcript here: PART-I All of us would be really interested in knowing that biggest impediment to our goals or dreams. It's really simple and known to all. Lack of a plan - an action plan to be specific We always will be able to fill our time with something, in the worst scenario we would say I am totally bored and go to sleep. Now without planning for the future, it is almost impossible for us to achieve the goals or dreams that we have set for ourselves. In 2016 end when I started to write blogs, I used to approach myself with a vigor that said "What is the next important thing that I need to do" mental approach to writing my blogs. It surely was giving me results but my energy and focus were only on the quantity of the blogs - it was not fitting into the big picture. I was always busy, but not purposefully busy. This is the reason why I am not telling you that planning is SO important. I cannot imagine continuing churning those number of blogs on a weekly basis without completely vigilant about setting goals, planning ahead, and managing my time well. I totally understand that planning is not embedded in everyone. I also know that if you need to achieve big goals or dreams then you necessarily require a solid plan. Now how do we get both done if they are mutually not aligned? Recently when I was listening to one of the podcasts by Ruth Soukup (Do It Scared) I found a great resonance between what is told in the Bhagawat Gita and Ruth's explanation for achieving the goal. From both the places I have come up with 3 very easy and practical tips which has really worked for me. to come up with a good action plan for any of our goals. Want to know more about these tips? |
AuthorVasudevan is a Leadership Mentor and an Executive coach. I run an online website geared towards helping creative entrepreneurs and future managers to build their dreams. Archives
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