1 HOW TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

Adam Smith starts by exploring improvement, attributing it to, ‘the increase of dexterity; to the saving of the time which is commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another; and to the invention of a great number of machines which facilitate one man to do the work of many’.

DEFINING IDEA…

Often he who does too much does too little.

~ ITALIAN PROVERB

Smith believed that the division of labour, breaking processes down to their smallest task and having one person perfect that task, led to increased dexterity and output. He uses the example of a nail maker and describes how with practice the dexterity of the nail maker would improve to the point where if he exerted himself he could make, ‘upwards of two thousand three hundred nails a day’. What fun!

The process also improved performance. If a worker was only doing one job, then no time was wasted in moving from one task to another. Smith notes, ‘The habit of sauntering and of indolent careless application by workmen obliged to change his work and his tools every half hour renders him almost always slothful and lazy and incapable of any vigorous application even on the most pressing occasion.’

Most probably, he would be very impressed with modern business and the efficiencies brought about by technology. However, that same technology is a double-edged sword. We may save time and travel expense on conference calls and we might have the tools to switch projects and change tasks without too much ‘sauntering’, but there are now many more traps to capture minds in unproductive work, whether that’s a sneaky game of Tetris on the spare office computer, checking your emails for the fourteenth time in two hours or sending inane messages to people on Facebook. According to Peninsula, an employment law firm, employees waste 233 million hours on social networking sites at an estimated cost to UK business of £130 million a day!

Smith also points out that, ‘Men are much more likely to discover easier methods when the whole attention of their mind is directed towards that single object than when it is dissipated among a great variety of things.’ This focused attention on a single task brings natural improvement as the worker seeks to simplify the process and make it easier for them to achieve the outcome.

As the name suggests, the Industrial Revolution transformed industry but it wasn’t much fun for most of those involved in it! It’s all very well to become a specialist and to know more and more about less and less, and certainly specialisation is useful and in many professions such as brain surgery it’s certainly comforting, but too much specialisation must have been mindnumbing, back-breaking work.

HERE’S AN IDEA FOR YOU…

If you manage a team and want to find out how to increase productivity and efficiency, then encourage your staff to improve their own processes. The people doing the jobs are always those best placed to improve them. Make it known that you are creating a monthly innovation prize. Each month employees are invited to contribute their ideas about how to improve productivity in their area. Every idea that makes or saves the business money is implemented and the inventor wins a cash prize.