4 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY

As of December 2022, something like 20 million meetings per day take place in the US alone, encouraged by lockdowns and enabled by more virtual platforms. But how productive is this, really?

- Clinton Wingrove

As January passed, many organisations were still grappling with setting goals for 2022. Well, 10 months or less will be left when they sign off the individual goals, objectives, OKRs, KPIs and all manner of other hole ridden plans. And, all the time, we are being encouraged to keep “Drinking the kool-aid” and believing in a raft of current myths. Let’s name just four of the most common ones:

• Setting goals enhances performance;

• Contemporary technology has increased productivity;

• Collaboration is the key to increased productivity;

• Remote and hybrid working increases productivity.

Since the late 70’s I have had an ever-increasing passion for working with individuals, teams, organisations to unleash their potential and transform their performance. Despite, a widespread belief in the unlimited power of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), I have found that substantially enhancing performance and productivity simply isn’t simple!

Individuals are, by definition, unique. So, whilst making specific tasks simple and applying simple principles may generally help, one size simple solutions rarely work when attempting to increase the performance and productivity of individuals. Based on over 4 decades working in this field I view many of our current “beliefs” as myths. Let’s explore those four I named.

WE HAVE LONG KNOWN THAT EMPLOYING MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES CAN ENHANCE CREATIVITY AND THUS IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY. BUT, WE SEEM TO HAVE BECOME ADDICTED TO IT TO THE EXCLUSION OF OTHER MEANS OF ACHIEVING OUR GOALS