tim wade - 8 pillars of profitable productivity

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© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected] Tim Wade www.TimWade.com DO MORE, SELL MORE, EARN MORE, GIVE MORE, LAUGH MORE Productivity ! 8 Pillars of Profitable

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Page 1: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Tim Wadewww.TimWade.com

DO MORE,SELL MORE,EARN MORE,GIVE MORE,LAUGH MORE

Productivity!8 Pillars of Profitable

Page 2: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

About Tim WadeImprove Results, Increase Performance, Retain StaffTim Wade partners organisations to develop leaders and increase productivity. His results:• Increases in productivity by 17%,• Increases in retention 12%,• Increase in morale by 35%,• Increase in attendance by 27%,• Increase customer satisfaction: 78%• Increase employee and customer

communication effectiveness: 100%Book Tim Wade for your next event.

Tim Wade is a motivational business growth speaker who has a 17-year corporate and consulting success track record helping business improve operational productivity and team performance levels. His background in psychology and corporate leadership sees him help teams increase self-belief, develop empowering mindsets and deliver positive results.Tim Wade has worked with audiences in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Dubai, China, India, Australia, USA, Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore. Clients include Microsoft, Motorola, Singapore Prison Services, Prudential, HSBC, American Express, UOB, National Institute of Education and many more!

Book Tim WadeBusinesses all over Singapore , South-East Asia and Asia-Pacific are booking Tim Wade to:• Deliver motivational, engaging,

entertaining & inspiring keynotes at conventions and events• Facilitate multi-day leadership

retreats: change, growth, business development• Train teams of leaders, managers

and operational support staff to dramatically improve performance in line with HR practices• Consult to business unit leaders with

HR managers to ensure performance improvements and operational process improvements are delivered.

+65 8268 3670

www.TimWade.com

Page 3: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Goal Clarity, Learn Skills, Victor Mindset, Positive Action, Persistence

Page 4: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Business Goals: Profitable Productivity

More More

More More

MoreDO SELL EARN

GIVE LAUGH

What is Profitable Productivity?

Page 5: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Success = Effectiveness

GIVEMore

SELLMore

LAUGHMore

EARNMore

DOMore

5 Pillars

Page 6: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Productivity, Efficiency & ProfitabilityProductivity = output per unit timeIf you want to increase your productivity, either increase the output or reduce the unit of time. In other words, either do more in the same amount of time, or do the same amount in a shorter amount of time. That’s the goal.Increasing your productivity is an excellent goal. Its efficiency, though, depends on what you do with the extra time available. This is where an understanding of efficiency is important.

EfficiencyEfficiency is the ratio of the output of a system to the input of a system.If you complete a quantity of work in 6 hours instead of 7, and do nothing productive with the extra hour, then the overall efficiency has not changed. That’s because output, the quantity of completed work, is the same, and the input, the workload needing completion, your wages and your time, are also the same.

This is the sort of productivity that has no impact on the bottom-line. It is no more profitable than before the productivity increase. What we are really looking for is what I call “profitable productivity”. This is where the efficiency improvements that we are looking for have a positive bottom-line impact.

Profitable ProductivityProfitable productivity improvements will increase operational efficiency (lowering staff costs or increasing capacity), reduce future spending by processing higher quantities of outstanding workloads, increase the opportunity for training, and increase customer responsiveness, service levels and satisfaction.Profitable productivity focuses on a measurable increase in the rate of output that positively impacts the bottom-line. This means they either reduce costs or increase revenue.

Page 7: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Employee Engagement

P S Y C H O L O G Y

Strategy

Reasons for Personal

MOTIVATION

Corporate Vision & Mission

Purpose Clarity & Personal Mission

LEADERSHIP

ACCOUNTABILITY& Time

ManagementMINDSET

ChangeManagementLeadership

Marketing

Branding

Innovation

Sales Results CustomerRelationships

OperationalEffectiveness

PerformanceReporting

Supply Chain

CSR

EmotionalIntelligence &

COMMUNICATION

TeamEffectiveness

Communication

SkillsManagement

PRODUCTIVITYOutput

Efficiency

ResourceManagement

FinancialEffectiveness

E X E C U T I O N

MEASUREMENT

STRATEGY

V I S I O N

E X E C U T I O N

Page 8: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

The 8 Pillars of Productivity

1. Analysis 2. Leadership 3. Structure 4. Systems 5. Communication 6. Performance 7. Feedback 8. Consequence

Page 9: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Case Study 1: AHT

1. Analysis

• What’s Possible?• What’s the Opportunity?• Requires Meaningful Reporting• Determine Target Improvement Areas• Component Measures vs Composite Measures

CASE STUDY 1: AHT = ATT + ACW ( 5=4+1 v 5=3+2)• Run a competition • Analyse Top Performers• Understand Variation Management• Set New Targets• Forecast Workload• Buddy Good Composite with Poor – Social Proof

Page 10: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Case Study 2: One-Page Business Case

2. Leadership

• What’s the Goal?• Who’s in the Team?• Who do we influence to reach the goal?

CASE STUDY 2: One-Page Business Case• Workshop the Challenges and Needs• Assign Leaders and Teams• Have them Create a One-Page Business Case• Focus on:• speak in the language of business: ROI• positive outcomes for customers• positive outcomes for stakeholders

Page 11: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Support Your Productivity Initiatives

3. Structure 4. Systems

STRUCTURE: for Information and Outcomes• Who’s analysing, reporting, forecasting, measuring?• Measure staff against themselves as well as others.• Increase frequency of accountability points.• Meetings: Regular, short, outcome-specific. Eliminate.• Calculate cost of meetings.• 17 people at $100kpa for 1 hr costs $1001.98• $100kpa / 261 actual work days / 6.5 actual work

hours = $58.94

SYSTEMS: reduce processing time by 10%• Challenge the norm, automate, simplify, eliminate• “We tried that before and it didn’t work”• “We’ve always done it that way”• WHY? … Ask a better question

Page 12: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Case Study: Monster Backlog + Sick LeaveCommunicate the Plan• Shift the from “That’s Impossible” with Proof• Use the results from the Competition• Tell them what you’re measuring and what you

expect to see change: Beverly’s AHT, Sick Leave• Create a culture of Positive Possibility Thinking• “YES WE CAN!” & WHY.

COUNTDOWN TO “KILL THE MONSTER”• Shift Mindsets with Enthusiastic Communication• Increase Performance Measurement

5. Communication 6. Performance

Page 13: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Case Study: Monster Backlog + Sick LeaveFEEDBACK:• You’ll need evidence, hence the reporting & analysis• Focus improvement on biggest value contributors• Identify Individual Mindsets & Behaviours: V9 Profile• Employ Business Coaching Skills: IBC Training

CONSEQUENCES: Articulate the Positive & Negative• clarity of consequences = clarity of goals• goal getting is a consequence of decisions and actions• What’s your BIG CARROT?

CELEBRATE COMPLETION: The Neuroscience of Victory• Celebrating Successes Hardwires Behaviours• Punishment Promotes Apathy Addiction• Dopamine vs Cortisol

7. Feedback 8. Consequence

Page 14: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

The 8 Pillars of Productivity

1. Analysis 2. Leadership 3. Structure 4. Systems 5. Communication 6. Performance 7. Feedback 8. Consequence

Page 15: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Example Detail – Step 5: Communication

• Clarity of goal & reasons– Tell them the measure of the goal, 10% case study– Explain the analysis (proof) & the benefits (why)

• Psychology of recipient– Sees only failure vs Positive Possibilites– Character and ability to respond vs react

• Consider sensitivities, ramifications and backlash• Influencing skills, persuasion, pain vs pleasure, rewards• Key internal champions

– Sabot vs Support– Victors, Victims– Positive action

• Who do you need to communicate too?

Page 16: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

How? - Increase Self-Awareness

What you focus on looking for, you will see more of. Look for what is positive and possible and value-adding, and you will see more. Look for what is negative and impossible and destructive, and you will see more of that. Look for more red around you, and you will see more red and be less aware of everything else.

Page 17: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Your Brain’s Information Filter

radio

Your brain filters out what you have told it to consider as unimportant through a mechanism called the reticular activating system (RAS).You tell your RAS what’s unimportant by:• specifying what is important (goals)• specifying what is unimportant (through prioritisation)• training it to respond to what is important (through your actions, decisions and habits whether good or bad)Your training of your mind (whether deliberate or accidental) creates the way your mind is set to respond to information… your mindset.

Page 18: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

YES WE

CAN!

SHOW ME THE MONEY!BLAME

IT ON THE

BOOGIE!

WHAT ABOUTME?

Like radio waves that are already all around us, we can tune into different types of mindsets. Which we choose is up to us, but it can be influenced by our workplace or environment and our strength of character. In the V9 profile there are 4 different mindsets that depend upon our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with other people.

Page 19: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Your Mindset, Brain & PerformanceMindset• Conditioning• Results• Behavioural Research• Success & Celebration

Performance• Action-orientation• Effort vs Talent• Hiring Drivers• Developing Mindsets• Productive ResultsBrain

• Reticular Activating System• Neuro-pathways• Cognitive Design• Recipient Filtering• Dismissed information

Page 20: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

If we want to change our results, we first need to change our minds…• We are conditioned to think a

certain way (mindset)• What we think about determines

our moods / our feelings / our emotions (character)• Our feelings can determine the

extent of our actions (motivation)• Our actions determine our results

V9

C T E A R

Most managers and trainers try to change results by addressing only a change in actions… they need to learn to go deeper. It is learnable.

Page 21: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

The V9 Profile

• 4 conditioned mindsets• 9 characters we play• Seek Increase Awareness• Develop Victor Mindset• Lead Accountability (Decrease

Excuses)• Give more value• Increase Productivity

V9 was created by Tim Wade

The V9 Profile helps individuals increase their awareness of how they are behaving, how they are perceived, and what they need to do to shift to the Mindset of Victory…

Page 22: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

V9 – 4 Conditioned Mindsets

Page 23: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

V9 – 9 characters to Victory

Personal Control

Page 24: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected] HELPING PEOPLE SHIFT

Our goal is to oscillate between the 4 characters in the Mindset of Victory

Page 25: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Our mindset has been created by habit.We need to change it by habit.

Change takes discipline, leadership, faith and positive reinforcement.

Leaders of change need help too, as well as guidance in their discipline, leadership, faith and positive reinforcement too. Give them assistance, training, coaching and professional external support as well as internal support structures.

“Successful people formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” - Albert E. N. Gray, 1940

The above quote doesn’t say that successful people LIKE to do the things that failures don’t like to do. They might not like to do them either, but they form the habit of doing them anyway.

Page 26: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Make a habit of Cultivating aPositive Possibility Mindset

by deliberately tuning into only one radio station of the mind…

YESWE CAN!

YES WE CAN!YES WE

CAN!

YES WECAN!

Page 27: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

www.TimWade.com

[email protected]

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Page 28: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

Read more:“How To Increase

Productivity”by Tim Wade

www.timwade.com/media

P.S. I’ve included the text of this article is reproduced in the next

few slides. But the PDF of the magazine version (with images) is

available at the above link.I also encourage you to make sure you receive my newsletter. They are SHORT, valuable and easy to

read!

Page 29: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

1: AnalysisAnalysis, the beginningAnalysis is where informed decisions begin. What is the opportunity? What’s the possibility? To find out we need to make sense of the information available to us, and obtain information that we still need.Analysis requires meaningful reporting to determine areas of potential productivity improvement. This means measuring how much gets accomplished in a particular timeframes, or how long particular tasks generally take to complete. Find out who is doing something well and who isn’t.It’s important to look at the component measures and not just the composite measures, as sometimes there are productivity opportunities in segments of tasks and productivity leadership in others.

Case Study: Average Handle TimeIn call centres, for example, a key productivity measure is the Average Handle Time (AHT) of the calls handled by different staff members (agents). This is the composite measure. It’s made up of a number of components, including Average Talk Time (ATT) and After Call Work time (ACW). You might find that over a week’s worth of the same

types of calls, one agent has an ATT of 3 minutes, and ACW of 2 minutes while another has an ATT of 4 minutes and an ACW of 1 minute. Both have an AHT of 5 minutes, but it’s clearly possible to have an AHT of 4 minutes if everyone can learn to reach the ATT of the first person (3 minutes) and the ACW of the second person (1 minute). From 5 minutes handling an item to 4 minutes; that’s a 20% productivity improvement right there.

Workload forecasting:Other aspects of Analysis include the workload forecast across days, months, or specific dates. A consulting team may have sudden increases in workload when Requests For Tenders or Proposals are advertised, but the required effort can, over time, be trended. Subsequently, prediction models can forecast resource requirements based on varying different elements (eg number of requests per period, frequency of periods, number of contributors, productivity rate).

Analysis of Triggers:While you may understand your workload inflow trends, it’s important to better understand the

Page 30: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

triggers. What happens that then creates your workflow? If the work is revenue generating, trigger it more. If it is cost-generating, analyse and assess the root causes and seek to reduce or eliminate.

Case Study:Here’s an example I faced: for this particular client, customers used the internet for self-service transactions. It is the most cost-effective delivery channel for the organisation at well under a dollar per transaction. An IT update or glitch causes the system to be offline. Customers then either go into the branch officers to make the same transaction but using counter staff instead. Or they call the call centre and either use the self-service function or seek operator assistance. The face-to-face transaction may have cost 30 times that of the internet transaction, while the call centre transaction may have cost 10 times.

The result:either staffing has taken the frequency of such glitches into account which means costs associated with this workload re-routing are unnecessarily

higher, or the customers bear the brunt of inconvenience and have to wait in queues formed by workload spikes that reduce customer satisfaction. Customer complaints reduce both customer and employee satisfaction, as well as reduce their willingness to contribute to the further growth of the company. Profitability is impacted. The trigger in this case is an IT failure or poor maintenance scheduling, or poor redundancies.Add to that a marketing campaign trigger that nobody knows about and your perfect storm begins to form.

What reports do you need to give you better information on what improvements are possible?What are your forecasts?What are your workload triggers?Can you influence them?

Page 31: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

2: LeadershipResults, the endWhat is the desired outcome? How can we do this better? To a large extent the quality of your leaders will determine the quality of your productivity outcome. Develop your leaders. Leaders envision, strategise, communicate and manage execution and performance. They have 6 main roles: See the vision, Build the strategy, Communicate it, Manage execution, Obtain and Give Feedback, Understand measures and Respond in accordance to the vision.Leaders must learn to influence effectively. Often when communicating up the hierarchy, this means to speak in the financial language of business; in terms of ROI, payback periods and opportunity costs. Speak in dollar benefits and decisions come your way faster. When communicating down, you would use more the language of relationships and people benefits. Sideways is a mixture of both.

Case Study: Develop LeadersWith one organisation, I worked with a large team of frontline and junior managers to help them prepare a series of business improvement initiatives with bottom-line impacts. Some required an initial

investment, while others required other resources. All required approval to proceed. I then had each of these managers present their proposals to senior management during a quarterly operations review. Each spoke in terms of financial impacts and benefits based on the quality of their analysis, the ROI of their solutions and the positive outcomes to the customers or impacted stakeholders.For the participating individuals, their feedback was that it was one of their highlights of their year. The benefits to them included growth and development as leaders, as well as exposure as a future leader.Leadership is a resource structure available to drive the productivity improvement initiative, to create awareness and lead change, to influence hierarchies and inspire team members. Critical to the success of the productivity improvement drive are those directly managing the frontline staff who are doing the bulk of the customer-facing, order fulfilment or processing work (such as first-level managers, team leaders and supervisors) as well as leaders and managers closest to the frontline employees.Who do you need to connect with to drive your productivity improvement initiatives?

Page 32: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

3: Structure

Structure, the vehicleStructure is how your business operations and staffing is set up to deliver its mission. Similarly, the structure you create to support the productivity improvement process is important. What human and other resources are available to you or do you need to put in place. Get the best people you can. Structure the timeframe in which the goals are to be achieved and put in place the support mechanisms so that you are able to track key performance indicators and adjust progress where necessary.

Report productionYour structure will also includes assigning report production and analysis responsibilities, having the technological availability from which to extract and assess data, and the ease of access to data that will enable accurate estimations of ROI (such as employee wage data, overheads, an activity-based costing or unit based costing data) from which recommendations can be more appropriately determined. You’ll also need to setup regular, short, outcome-specific management meetings. Create a

sense of urgency. We’re talking about productivity after all. Increase the frequency of accountability points. This means people will report more frequently, analyse faster, touch base more often, get clear on what is really important and focus on the task. Eliminate the meetings once they have served their purpose.

What structure do you need to put in place to support your productivity initiatives, and what structures will you put in place to support your poor performers?

Page 33: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

4: SystemsSystems, the processSystems are also processes that we need to create to streamline our efforts and save time wasted in repetition. Often some systems are already in place, and there will be existing processes that need to be reviewed.Systems are also the internal and technological processes, procedures and compliance constraints that form the operating boundaries. Here there are usually opportunities to find significant process automation, outsourcing or elimination opportunities and thus productivity savings.When you bought your current computer, it was fast then, wasn’t it? But now it’s slower. That’s because of all the additional processes and tasks it now has to run, some of which you never use anymore and others just conflict with each other and cause operational problems and poor productivity.The processes are parts of implemented systems that are perhaps redundant or not required as frequently as they run.The same goes for the ways our people operate and what they do with work items, to whom they give

them, why they give them to those people and what they do with it and why.When you ask “Why do you do that?” and nobody can answer you with anything other than “That’s the way we’ve always done it”, then you have a process that can be reviewed with the aim of streamlining it, cutting out irrelevant steps or eliminating it altogether.When you’ve identified areas be ready for responses like “we tried that before and it didn’t work”. The past problem was that they tried it only once. The present problem is that they don’t think they should try again. Persist. If the idea is sound, keep trying.

What systems do you need to establish and which systems do you need to begin to review?

Page 34: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

5: CommunicationCommunication, the reasonThe most important aspect of communication is not how well it is communicated, nor even how clearly it is received, although both of these are important. Most important is the psychology of the recipient.Are they listening with a mindset of Victor, excited by challenge and the possibilities to grow and develop, or Victim, seeing only the way it will fail? Are they looking at what’s in it just for them, or how the change is going to make them suffer? What is their character and how will they respond?

V9This is exactly why I developed the V9 model, to help leaders identify the 9 characters in their team and the mindsets that are underlying their response to communication, because these will affect their commitment to performance.

Victors & VictimsVictors take positive action; they walk the talk. Victims sabotage; they throw the shoe into the machine to stop progress. Incidentally, the word sabotage was born when a disgruntled Dutch

industrial worker threw their wooden shoe called a “sabot” into the machine which caused it to stop working. You want your team to be using their shoes for walking their talk!Communicating your intended outcomes is important, coupled with a compelling reason why.

Singapore’s 3% The Singapore Government did just that by asking organisations to increase their productivity by 3%. I did a similar thing with my bank client. I told all the staff I wanted a 10% decrease in their handling time for a particular workload, and the reporting and analysis team had to find me a decrease of negative (unprofitable, costly) workload or underutilised resources by 10% as well.

Impossible ProofOnce we got past the declarations of impossibility, I simply showed them the proof. From extracting figures and models from their own statistics I could show it was possible. And if someone had actually done it before, so could everyone else. I then explained how their whole leadership team was going to support them to achieve it. The compelling

Page 35: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

reason I gave was that based on the Analysis and forecasts, staffing was not going to increase as fast as the workload, and if the productivity did not improve, then there would be customer complaints, and these staff were the ones handling the customers.

Communicate pain & pleasureIn brief: communicate the pain if we don’t change, and pleasure if we do. So if the productivity targets could be reached then the entire centre would have a Victory celebration. We had quite a celebration!

Case study: operations v marketingI worked with a marketing team on setting up a response unit for their campaign. When I told them how much it was going to cost them based on their projections and big-bang approach, their initial response was that the cost was not in their budget but someone else’s.When a series of discussions helped them realise that it would impact their budget, they changed their approach.

In the end their projected response was significantly lower than their initial and adjusted requirements anyway. There was a big cost savings from the exercise when speaking in terms of impact to your own bottom line.

Whose Money is it Anyway?One thing any small business owner knows is that costs impacts their personal bank account in one way or another. When working for someone else, it can sometimes seem like an endless supply of resources. This can breed poor financial accountability. Communicate the need for financial vigilance and articulate opportunity costs and decision criteria. This can only be done when you and your people are clear about the goal. Communicate the goal, and do it often.

To whom do you need to communicate your vision, reasons and strategies, and how frequently?

Page 36: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

6: PerformancePerformance, the executionThis is the actual effort by individuals focussing on improving their productivity. Performance is about accountability and action, psychology and persistence, vision and execution. Performance reveals training gaps and skill gaps, and identifies future leaders and developers.

De-motivational logicThere is a psychological component to this though and it is a particularly powerful de-motivator for those in a large team who are doing a repetitive job.The logic is:• if I work faster, I will have more work to do.

Another peer pressure logic is:• if you work faster, I look slower, so don’t make

me look bad.Another one is:• if I slow down, I will take longer, keep my job for

longer and get paid for longer.Bear these in mind, address them if they surface. The final factor of Consequence handles some of these, and the Leadership factor comes into play

here too. Fundamentally we must help employees shift from a weak mindset to a mindset of Victory; engaging in the goal and its purpose.Leadership is vital in facilitating the shift, as is self-awareness, courage and self-discipline. All can be inspired.Begin with detailed performance reporting against targets. While you might think that the introduction of more detailed individual performance reporting may be met with complaints of a “Big Brother” type of excessive observation, you’ll be surprised to realise that it soon becomes a popular and significant performance enhancer.The best motivator is always proof (and acknowledgment) of a job well done.

Who do you need to speak with regarding their positive or negative attitude to performance?What performance encouragement tools do you need to create and implement?

Page 37: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

7: FeedbackFeedback, the positive redirectionArguably you could include feedback as part of Communication. But it’s so important it deserves to be a factor on its own. Feedback is the information required from the workers as to the issues they are facing, the strategies and tactics that worked well, and those that did not work so well.This information is what can help leaders improve execution strategies, and what can help performers improve their operational output.

Ask, Listen, RespondFeedback is when leaders ask, listen and respond. When delivering performance feedback, ask what worked and what didn’t. Get employee buy-in and engage them in the process. For example when presenting productivity reports to their team, you can align the statistics with their anecdotal observations, and with a common point of reference you can coach and encourage particular aspects on which to focus.For instance, if someone had 5 key metrics and was performing poorly on all of them, you might get them to focus on improving just one metric while

maintaining the other four at their present level. Of course the one you choose would be the one with the single greatest impact to their contribution, but you would then focus all your coaching effort with that team member on them improving that particular element.

Use business coaching skillsDuring the process of feedback, the skills of being a coach is particularly effective. The coach uses their clarity of distance to offer an alternative perspective to that of the person involved in the activity.In my sessions training team mangers to be effective business coaches, the impact to performance is dramatically improved. This is because the way feedback is given coupled with the psychology of the recipient and how that psychology is developed by the giver of feedback, will determine if the feedback is received and utilized to further grow and develop performance, or whether it will have a negative effective on employee performance.How frequently will you give feedback and to whom, and on what evidence will the feedback be based?

Page 38: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

8: ConsequenceConsequence, positive & negativeFinally we have consequences; the results of our decisions and actions, and when clear, these become our drivers. In fact clarity of consequences is intrinsically related to clarity of goals, for a goal is indeed a consequence of a series of decisions and actions.When driving productivity improvement, establish positive and negative consequences that include consequences for success, apathy and failure.Success consequences may be reward and recognition or a celebration, a day off or a bonus. Consequences for apathy may include disciplinary or counselling action, and potential termination.Consequences for failure, which will depend on the reasons for failure, will range from encouragement, coaching, training, buddying, further clarification of goals, transfer or otherwise.The best consequence is regular positive encouragement and feedback from their leaders that is sincere and supportive. These are not transactional incentives, but relational incentives. They’re free and they are better at aligning

employees with the vision and missionthan other methods.Having said that, a tangible celebration of achievement is always a positive emotional and physical anchor to overcoming an obstacle, and can be talked about for weeks, months and even years later. What consequences will you put in place to begin the process and what will you put in place to maintain it?

CompletionSet your team up to win. Ensure you have the 8 factors for productivity in place and then further develop your skills in each and be profitable in your endeavours. Task your people with searching for productivity improvements everywhere. And then get started. 3% is achievable. So is 10%, sometimes 30% or more. What does your analysis say? Choose a goal, and let necessity be the mother of invention. There is always a way.Finally, always remember that one of the greatest rewards for productivity is the sense of completion. And you and I can enjoy that... now!

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Page 39: Tim Wade - 8 Pillars of Profitable Productivity

© 2011 Tim Wade - www.TimWade.com www.TimWade.com [email protected]

www.TimWade.com

[email protected]

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