Because of the slow economy, decreasing budgets and leaner teams, many companies are refocusing on operational aspects of their business and trying to figure out how to be more productive. We are all trying top do more with less. In some ways, the economy has given innovation a big, motivating kick in the pants. Organizations are looking inward to spot resource drains and inefficiencies. Management teams are ready and willing to “work differently”, mostly because there really isn’t a choice. So how do you become more productive as an organization?

I did a quick Google Search on “increasing productivity” and got over 3.6 million hits (Bing gave me 16.2 million) so there is a lot of stuff out there to help you get started. But before you start, I’d like to propose one thing that will have a dramatic impact on productivity. As I write this I am remembering Curly speaking to Mitch in City Slickers and suggesting that the secret of life was: One Thing.
My “one thing” isn’t quite as entertaining but it’s still pretty powerful.

When you start to look at your current operations, simply ask the question: Does this help us meet our corporate goals? The answer will sometimes surprise you. If the answer is yes, then continue on your journey to see if the process can be improved. If the answer is no, then why are you doing it? Get rid of tasks, processes and the generation of any type of product or deliverable that doesn’t align with your corporate objectives and you will inevitably increase productivity. Sometimes legacy practices hang on well past their expiration date and provide job security and a degree of comfort. That’s where things get tough. These things aren’t worth your precious time and don’t deserve your attention.

I used to send out a monthly report which required a great deal of tracking and management of market data. One day it occurred to me that the value of the report was in larger trends that did not necessarily appear in the month to month data. It sounds pretty obvious but I didn’t see it until we had already spent too much time on it. We stepped back, revamped the report format and began circulating it quarterly. The result: more valuable information is now distributed to the team, less effort is expended on maintenance of data and we have more time to devote to analysis of the trends that we are detecting. But for a long time I was so immersed in completing the monthly report that I wasn’t able to see that its value had diminished in light of our corporate goals.

Managers throughout your organization should be asking this question without exception. Does this help us meet our corporate goals?
They should be comfortable letting go of burdens that divert their resources so they can focus their time on meaningful tasks. Once you ask the question, keep asking it because the answers change as your organization, your offerings and your market change. A standard operating procedure that was essential last year may be irrelevant this year because of new technologies or new standards.

The lousy economy has nudged us to do what we should have been doing all along. When you get everyone on the same page and focused on the same objectives, productivity increases are inevitable. Curly would be proud…