What can you do about productivity?

The human species can be negative.

We criticise our politicians from our armchairs.

We complain because Apple computer is not inventing something new all the time.

Apple have been very good at inventing products that we didn’t know we needed until they invented them – iPod, iPad, iPhone.

There is an international development organisation – JCI. JCI’s motto is: “Be Better”

But how? How can I improve my productivity?

I believe there are three questions that we should regularly be able to answer yes to:

1. Being more personally productive.

I mentioned the iPhone.

I have one. Am I going to buy a new one – not now.

Why? There is little difference between my model and the current model. I am not using the current phone to its fullest capacity yet. I improve my personal efficiency by using its features better. I do this my experimenting and trying new things when the need arises. I Google “iPhone how to …” when I get stuck.

2. Helping others to be more productive.

I am fortunate. As a training consultant, I believe I help people learn better, more productive ways to operate.

In discussing computer systems and processes, many training participants tell me their systems are underutilised. Sometimes people do not know how to do things properly.

I remember talking to one supervisor in a Train the Trainer program. People were not setting up production jobs correctly the first time. It took a number of attempts before the job was correctly set up. Apart from the production time lost, the waste was costly. Later in the day he revealed that production wastage had been calculated at $4 million annually.

3. Have I made a contribution?

“Be Better” as a citizen as well as an employee. Help organisations to make right decisions. Encourage your organisations to increase their focus on sustainability.

These three action items show that it is possible to “Be Better”.