Improving the productivity of knowledge workers

What are the opportunities?

Workshop at Durham Business School 17th Sept 0830-1300

To attend contact: colin.ashurst@durham.ac.uk

ITDF workshop

• The key challenge from the recent survey of IT management was:

realizing benefits from current systems and information.

• The opportunity: a workshop session to share ideas and

opportunities with colleagues– The workshop will tackle Knowledge Worker Productivity

– There will be input based on recent research, but the design of the

session will focus on enabling members to work together to share ideas &

experience

• Timing and format: 9.00am - 1.00pm on 17th Sept 2010 at Durham

Business School (tea & coffee from 8.30 & lunch at 12.30)

There are big variations in the productivity of knowledge workers

• Based on studies of 600 software developers from 92 companies…

Individuals

• The best people outperform the worst by 10:1

• The best performer is about 2.5 times better than the median

Teams

• There is also a 10:1 difference in productivity among software organisations

• What if this 10:1 difference applies in other knowledge work

scenarios?

DeMarco, Tom. (1999) Peopleware : productive projects and teams. Dorset House Publishing

Knowledge economy – knowledge work

• ‘the unique contribution of management in the 20th century was the 50 fold improvement in the productivity of manual workers…

• ...the most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st century is to similarly increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers’

• Peter Drucker1999.

Knowledge work productivity: context

• Realising benefits from current systems and information was the top

priority from the recent research project

– ‘Do more with less’

– ‘Sweat the assets. ’

• Many of our users / customers are knowledge workers:

– Lawyers, accountants, academics, doctors, professionals in other public

services, senior managers, consultants, IT professionals…

– Workers who rely on skills and knowledge to get the job done; they have

discretion how to do the job.

• Most organisations have modern, reliable technologies in place (?) But

are we getting the most out of these investments?

What do knowledge workers do?

What do knowledge workers do?

• Attend / lead meetings

• Travel – to customers, suppliers, conferences, other work

locations

• Communicate – face to face, phone, email, instant

messaging….

• Handle interruptions

• Work in project teams – co-located, virtual

• Take decisions

• Write reports / prepare presentations

• Do administration – expenses, travel booking….

What tools do knowledge workers use?

• Pen and paper• Phone / mobile• PC / laptop / tablet pc• PDA• Email / Outlook• Internet• Word• PowerPoint• Excel

• Often use email and Microsoft Office for 20+ hours a week

• Often receive 20, 50 or even up to 200 emails a day

Key issues

• How can we enable individuals and teams to focus on the ‘task’; the work they do

to create value?

• How can we enable individuals and teams to get more out of general technology /

systems?– Demo / discussion

– Then consider eg• Individual activity – eg reports / presentations

• Meetings / committees

• Teams

• Virtual working (meetings, teams)

• Sharing knowledge / good practices

• What are the challenges in developing specialist systems for knowledge workers?

Questions (1)

• What business & IT initiatives have you taken to enable

professional/ knowledge workers to concentrate on the ‘task’ (ie their

activities that create value)?

• What action have you taken to enable knowledge workers to

increase their productivity by exploiting standard desktop and mobile

technologies (Microsoft Office etc)? What about:

– Individuals?

– Meetings?

– Committees?

– Teams?

– Virtual working?

Questions (2)

• Who is responsible for improving knowledge worker productivity

in your organisation?

• How does the help desk contribute?

• How are new ideas and good practices shared?

• How is knowledge worker productivity tackled in individual /

departmental development plans?

Questions (3)

• How does the approach to systems design / development

change when knowledge workers are key users?

• How do you approach implementation / managing change in

knowledge worker scenarios?

• What are good practices post implementation to sustain /

develop benefits realisation in knowledge work scenarios?

END