Break the Productivity Barrier with LIFO® Training

A Few Simple Skills for Individuals and Teams

by Dr. Stuart Atkins

The last fifty years have seen many remarkable breakthroughs in technology, but the question remains: have we made comparable progress in human productivity? As managers and training professionals, we are still charged with the responsibility of boosting the productivity of individuals and teams. To do so, I believe there are four fundamental productivity factors that must be considered:

1. Quality—How Good The degree to which the individuals or teams output meets or exceeds established standards.
   
2. Quantity—How Much and How Fast The amount produced in a given period of time.
   
3. Economy—How Practical The costs, benefits, and return on the effort.
   
4. Acceptability—How Well-Received The degree to which the output satisfies the expectations of others.

Although a team or organization may agree on how to measure each one of these productivity factors, research shows that there is great variability in how people rate the relative importance of the four productivity factors.

In analyzing the results of our LIFO® Style Surveys taken by managers and employees in Fortune 1000 organizations, 9% of the participants valued just one of the productivity factors significantly more than the others; 55% placed high value on two of the factors; 31% valued three of them more highly; while only 5% valued all four equally.

The reason for this variability is that each of us brings to work our own unique mix of values, goals, and priorities. We may rarely speak about them, but they strongly influence our decisions about what should be done, how and when it should be done, and who should do it.

12 Productivity Traps Quality 1. Trying for perfection 2. Pursuing utopian ideas Quantity 4. Jumping haphazardly between projects 5. Taking on impractical challenges 6. Leaving projects undone to take on more Economy 7. Staying with the old until it breaks down 8. Rejecting things that can’t be used now 9. Over-planning and losing opportunities Acceptability 10. Trying to please everybody 11. Getting confused by too many opinions 12. Not taking action for fear of offending

This can make it very difficult for people to agree on exactly how to improve productivity. For example, people who place a high value on quality are committed to doing their very best. They believe it is important to take as much time as necessary to meet their high standards. It doesn’t make sense to them to produce a product or service that isn’t of the highest quality. Their underlying philosophy is: “Any job worth doing is worth doing well.”

On the other hand, people who focus on quantity want to see action, and plenty of it. They approach work with a sense of urgency and an eye for the bottom line, eager to take control and get quick results. For them, productivity means getting a lot of things done. Quality is less important: “Just do it!” is their motto.

In contrast, people who value economy try to make the most of what they have. They believe that productivity is a complex issue that requires analyzing options, planning carefully, and selecting the most practical alternatives that are most likely to pay off over time. Their perspective is: “A dollar saved is a dollar earned.”

And finally, those people who value acceptability more than the other productivity factors emphasize flexibility, harmony, and adapting to make sure that others are pleased with the outcome. To them, being productive means doing things that are acceptable to others: means doing things that are acceptable to others: “It’s OK with me if it’s OK with you.”

A New Productivity Model

Each one of the four basic productivity factors—quality, quantity, economy, acceptability—can be thought of as being on a continuum, with too little at one end and too much at the other. Between these two extremes is a point of maximum productivity—just enough of the most effective and efficient action to accomplish what we want.

Ordinarily, we evaluate the way people act and label their actions as good or bad, right or wrong, strong or weak. This kind of polar judgment keeps us from seeing actions as a matter of degree more or less, somewhere between the two poles.

Too Much of a Good Thing

To increase our productivity as an individual or a team, we need to develop a few simple skills. The first skill is learning to recognize when we are starting to waste time by doing “too much of a good thing.” All four productivity factors are important, but if a person or a team focuses too much on any one of these factors, they can become unproductive.

Too much emphasis on quality, and costs can spin out of control. Too much focus on sheer quantity, and error rates can skyrocket.

If economy becomes paramount, quality may drop to unacceptable levels. And if acceptability becomes the overriding concern, an individual or team can lose the discipline and expertise that come from staying focused on a specific mission and a set of core competencies.

By pushing any single productivity factor too far, we can waste time, reduce our performance, and create confusion in people whose preferred productivity factors are different from ours. To break the productivity barrier, we need to control the over-reliance on quality, quantity, economy, or acceptability.

Deliver extraordinary customer service Assess and hire people with integrity Analyze your skills for career planning Allow peers to evaluate managers Assess and develop leadership Avoid negligent hiring problems Know the backgrounds of hires Improve working relationships Measure and increase productivity Use a total assessment for successful hiring Select successful sales people Help managers perform better Evaluate a job candidate's qualifications Help leaders get the most from their groups Assess and develop management teams Identify and/or develop top sales people Assess your organization's productivity Develop your leadership teams Create an applicant management system