The main capital in the age of robotization is employees. It sounds paradoxical, but it is true. Soon everyone will have robots, and they will all work the same way. People will become an indicator of effectiveness - only they can make a company unique and most attractive to customers.
The secret of staff efficiency is simple - everyone is in their place, everyone values their place. But how can this be achieved in practice?
Everyone in their place
First, it is necessary that each employee understands what is required of him. Where possible, we set standards. They are needed not only to evaluate the employee’s performance. The norm is a guideline that will not allow you to relax or “burn out at work.” The norm must be reasonable - there is no need to wishful thinking.
When there is an understanding of what an employee should do, you can move on to assessing staff performance. There are different assessment methods - qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative, or descriptive, are based on opinions, reviews, and compliance with an ideal. Quantitative methods are more objective because they are based on numbers. For example, the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) system - key performance indicators.
To determine KPIs you will need:
- Criteria for employee evaluation. What is the most important thing in his work? Number of concluded transactions, number of repeat orders, quality of request processing
- Quantitative performance indicators: minimum sufficient (base), standard (norm) and desired (goal)
(Act minus base/Norm minus base) × 100% = result (%)
- If the result is more than 100% - excellent, the employee is in the right place
- If the result is not satisfactory, a detailed analysis of individual KPIs according to criteria is needed. It may make sense to employ this employee in another position where he can use his strengths
Everyone values their place
Methods employee motivation are divided into tangible and intangible. Now in trend. This works for Western companies, where the salary of a specialist is almost the same for all employers. It makes sense to attract employees with additional bonuses.
But we live in Russia. Some statistics: how much does a lawyer earn in Novosibirsk? Which company will receive more resumes?
Therefore, the first level of motivation is material. Can be installed average salary by region. This is the base salary. But it is necessary that the employee understands that the final amount will depend on his KPI. Moreover, the bonus calculation scheme should be as transparent and understandable as possible for the employee.
Motivation of the second level is socio-material. Experts in the survey: 44% of Russians would like to pay at the expense of the company, 40% want to receive a voluntary health insurance policy, 32% - preferential vacation vouchers, 28% - paid fitness, 26% - meals at the expense of the employer. And of course, material incentives are always valuable - for a birthday, for a wedding, in connection with the birth of a child. This money is a gesture goodwill company and are therefore highly valued by employees.
Level three motivation is comfort in the workplace. This includes coffee, cookies, a place to relax, and fast Internet. The list is endless and limited only by the company’s imagination.
Monitoring the work of personnel
A few words. Oddly enough, this is also a method of motivating employees. There are companies where every conversation between a manager and a client is listened to and analyzed. This best way kill motivation. There is no need for total control. Monitoring KPI indicators - the final result - is quite enough. Let employees choose how they will achieve it. Trust is a great motivational tool.
Analysis of the activities of government and commercial organization The Russian Federation identified a similar problem, one of the main reasons, which turned out to be the presence of ineffective actions in everyday work, which force organizations to bear significant and mostly hidden costs, and company efficiency, is an integrative indicator; it consists of the tasks and effectiveness of individual processes that are solved in everyday life, so what are they based on.
1 The reason for the company's low efficiency. Lack or absence of professional specialists who have experience in building organizational structures. This is mainly due to the lack of practical courses, as well as education in the field of management. There is a catastrophic lack of people with management skills and practical experience. Considering that coordination of activities and organizational work, are the main functions in management, this factor has critical value.
The diagram of each organization can be shown on a three-level model:
The top level represents the owner;
The middle level looks like management;
The bottom one is ordinary personnel.
The goals and needs of each level are different from each other. Main task management in this structure is to organize work where the upper and lower levels are in balance.
2 Reason for the company's low efficiency, lies in the lack of a specific understanding among the owners of what exactly they want to receive as a result of the organization’s activities. Not every company has a certain idea about the product of its activities. It is for this reason that the organization’s goals are completely absent or incorrectly formulated, which makes it impossible to control and manage the company.
3 Reason for the low efficiency of the company- this is the lack of a planning system, which leads to low efficiency of the company as a whole. Basically, at each level of the company there are a number of plans that may not correlate with each other, and also differ from the goals of the organization. This makes it difficult to prepare reports and does not allow you to quickly assess actions and tasks that relate to the goals of the enterprise. Planning is the most important function of a manager, which is designed to ensure the required result in a timely manner.
4 The reason why it often occurs low efficiency in organizations, this is the lack of a system for managing and motivating employees. In many companies, employees do not know what they are rewarded for. Staff do not notice the connection between the organization's goals and their own earnings.
5 Reason for the low efficiency of the company. Lack of tools for quick control and efficiency of performed actions. This problem is relevant for any employee, as well as the organization as a whole. As a rule, this is clearly expressed in government institutions, where the concept of efficiency is not always present, however this situation often found in private organizations. Do not forget that performance assessment and control are the most important functions of a manager.
6 The reason for the company's low efficiency. Lack of professional standards in companies. This problem is currently relevant for organizations that regularly carry out standard procedures and processes. In the absence of corporate standards, an employee who takes part in a sequence of actions does not always make the necessary contribution to the progress of the organization. If an employee who was involved in the implementation of this process leaves the company, risks arise that can paralyze the work of the entire organization.
7 Reason for the low efficiency of the company. The lack of an adaptation system for new employees, as well as loyalty programs for employees, which reduces the efficiency of the company. When there is no personnel management function, this task falls on the management of the organization. Every leader must have an idea of the department that is loyal to him. But it is not always possible to retain and track all the information. As a result, each employee is left to his own devices, and there is no one to manage his loyalty.
8 The reason for the company's low efficiency. Misunderstanding of the purpose of marketing functions in the work of an organization:
Ineffective organizational structure marketing, in which there are no clearly defined functions of the enterprise.
Absence information materials about the enterprise;
Ignorance of the market share that the company occupies.
Lack of tools for managing internal and external information flows.
Lack of target groups.
Lack of understanding of the meaning of the brand and its role in the company.
All reasons for low company performance, can be grouped into 2 areas - this is a practical problem in management and a problematic situation in marketing practice, however, every company needs the correct construction of these two components.
Increasing the efficiency of enterprise personnel is currently gaining momentum in the world special meaning. Working in a modern progressive society dictates new rules:
- determine the level personnel qualifications,
- knowledge and skills of workers,
- searching for ways to improve staff efficiency.
Modern researchers of this issue are looking for new approaches, for example, new organizational forms activities of employees, calculation of the labor participation coefficient. In modern market conditions, the management apparatus of any enterprise for effective personnel selection must take into account not only the professional qualities of future employees, but also the level of emotional stability. Labor as a phenomenon is directly related to the intensive development of production, as well as to the use automated systems, information, computer technologies. This significantly changes its basic functional content. Therefore, the professional and qualification composition of workers is changing radically. Of great importance is the long-term analysis of human resources, which includes labor productivity per unit of time or the amount of working time spent on the production of a unit of output, and the effective use of human resources in general. By effectively increasing the productivity of personnel at an enterprise, it is possible to exceed plans for projects. To repeat this result, he should be rewarded with a bonus.
Ways to increase effective staff productivity
Often, companies achieve prosperity of a particular business structure through the efficiency of their personnel. Business expansion usually leads to an increase in the number of employees. It is necessary to list the main ways to possibly increase the efficiency of the staff. Among them:
- control and maintenance of labor discipline,
- high-quality management and recording of results for the work performed by each employee,
- possible correction of deficiencies,
- diagnostics and correction of the emotional atmosphere in the team as a whole and specifically for each employee.
- control of workers' attendance at workplace(at the beginning of the working day),
- control of employee working time (its rational use),
- labor-intensive payroll calculation based on hours worked,
- identification of malicious violators of labor discipline,
- documentation of violations of labor discipline,
- control over the implementation of work schedules.
A competent, qualified HR specialist plays a key role in this situation. This position should be in any enterprise.
Methods that increase staff efficiencya
You should pay attention to and adopt the following proven methods for increasing staff efficiency: - required entry job descriptions,
- implementation of an automated working time recording system,
- employee certifications,
- conducting regular personnel monitoring,
- employee motivation system,
- incentive system for disciplined employees (employee salaries must correspond to their efficiency for the enterprise),
- strict accounting of time away from work even for a good reason when calculating wages,
- punishment for violators of labor discipline,
- development and implementation of a transparent system of work control schedules.
- guarantee (preservation) of a job;
- opportunity for professional growth at the enterprise;
- the employee’s income, that is, wages that must completely suit the employee;
- incentive system (bonuses, excursions, free trips, benefits, discounts, gifts).
Good organization of employees on old equipment produces better results than new equipment with poor organization.
Hello! In this article we will talk about personal effectiveness.
Today you will learn:
- What is personal effectiveness;
- What does it affect?
- How to be truly effective.
What is personal effectiveness
Let's start with the theoretical part. The very concept of personal effectiveness for ordinary person understandable, but somewhat blurry. Due to the fact that there is no clear definition, problems arise in the methodology, and in general in the field of application. Let's try to define a person's personal effectiveness.
Personal effectiveness – a person’s ability to perform certain tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Based on this definition, it is already possible to identify the main problems that a person faces when performing certain everyday tasks:
- Switching attention;
- Not working at full capacity.
That is, we can say that personal effectiveness implies a clear concentration on performing a certain task at the maximum level. Today, psychologists are increasingly giving priority to issues of personal effectiveness. in the world full of information, it’s quite difficult not to drown in such a stream, and to filter out the one you need.
Why is it important to evaluate and improve personal effectiveness?
The effectiveness of one specific person can influence not only the performance of one specific task at work or school, but also the overall pursuit of certain human goals.
Based on personal effectiveness, we can judge not only how quickly you complete the task assigned by your employer, but also how quickly you can climb the career ladder, receive and use new information, and achieve your goals.
Personal effectiveness is responsible for an important parameter – performance. A person with little effectiveness will endlessly trail behind while more successful ones use their potential to complete their tasks. In order to better understand the very meaning of using personal effectiveness, you need to raise the topic of talent and using your potential.
It is a well-known fact that success consists of hard work and talent. Moreover, people put forward different proportions, from 10% talent and 90% labor, to 50/50.
Personal effectiveness is an analogue of labor using one’s talent. That is, you use your resources to achieve your goal as quickly as possible, using the minimum possible amount of effort.
This does not mean that the task will be performed poorly, quite the contrary - than more effective person, the more efficiently he will complete the work in a short time.
Accordingly, increasing personal efficiency will inevitably lead to the fact that a person will spend much less time on everyday activities.
Example: The employee is entrusted with the task of analyzing competitors in his company's industry. Based on this report, he will need to make his analysis, assess the company’s development prospects and, in general, give his verdict on the advisability of entering the market. An employee will cope with this task from 1 week to 1 month. And the higher its efficiency, the shorter the time it will take to complete this task.
We talk more about the timing of tasks rather than their quality, primarily based on modern realities. The problem of the current job is not to cope with the task at the level - there are almost never problems with this. Main problem- V .
Everyone has noticed this phenomenon: for the first 20-30 minutes at work, you, with burning eyes, begin to carry out the tasks assigned to you. Then, the effectiveness drops, the eyes stop burning, and what took 5 minutes gradually takes 10, 15 and 20.
If you look at yourself from the outside at this time, you can notice endless distractions, weakening concentration, switching from one task to another and other truly ineffective things. And this phenomenon is observed everywhere, not only at work, but also at school, when conducting, training, reading, etc.
It is in order to reduce the time it takes to complete one task, thereby increasing your productivity, you need to train personal efficiency.
Who is recommended to increase personal effectiveness first?
Absolutely every person needs to train personal effectiveness, but some professions require a special approach to this. Let's figure out who needs to take care of themselves first and foremost.
Freelancers. Let's start with them. This is a special category of workers who perform various tasks. This could be the creation of programs, design, accounting, etc.
This category of people is most susceptible to information attack due to constant contact with information. If at work in the office social networks, news sites and other ways to kill time and distract from work are blocked or under surveillance, then when working from home there are no such restrictions.
Often, in order to complete a task that would take a maximum of 15 minutes, the average freelancer spends more than an hour. It is in order to cope with work faster, increase earnings, the number of clients, and at the same time free up time for more interesting things - freelancers need to constantly improve their personal effectiveness.
Businessmen. This category will include everyone who has any kind of money, as well as directors and top managers of large companies. In reality modern economy, businessmen and senior management have a very limited amount of time to solve important problems.
Moreover, they have more responsibilities than ordinary employees. It is in order to find time for everything, and leave a few more hours for life outside of work, that you need to develop your personal effectiveness.
Students. Anyone who learns something can be included in this category. Regardless of whether it is school or a two-month accounting course, using their academic potential to the full is the primary task of these people.
Get the maximum quantity useful information, filtering it from unnecessary garbage, and making it suitable for use for one’s own purposes - this is a task the implementation of which is influenced by personal effectiveness.
When personal effectiveness is formed
A person’s personal effectiveness is a subjective factor. It begins to form in preschool age, and its peak formation occurs at the age of 19-25, a time when people are just starting to work, using everything they received during their education.
But the whole foundation is acquired at school, when the same multitasking of students manifests itself: they need to do their homework, do what they like, surf on social networks, hang out with friends, complete their parents’ tasks around the house, and so on. It is during this period that priorities are set.
But this does not mean that increasing personal effectiveness is impossible at a later age. It is after 23-25 years that people think about how they can increase their efficiency in order to devote time to their family and leave a little for their hobbies.
That is why it is necessary to improve one’s own effectiveness as early as possible, but even at a later age one cannot say that a person will not be able to change himself and begin to be more efficient.
The basis of personal effectiveness is made up of three factors:
- Setting goals;
- Use of resources;
- Socialization.
Setting goals is the most important factor of all three. In order to work effectively, you need to understand why you are doing it. A well-set goal is the basis of the result. At the same time, it is important to set intermediate goals. The shortest time period for one goal should be 1 day.
Resource Usage. Comparing personal effectiveness with the economy is perfect here. Economics is the science of use limited quantity resources to meet needs. If we draw an analogy with a person, then everyone has their own supply of resources that must be used in order to fulfill their goals.
Socialization. Also quite an important factor. He is responsible for communication and implementation of goals in society. Every day a person inevitably encounters other people, and they also influence the fulfillment of his goals, just like himself.
It is in order to train the skill of achieving goals that you need to learn to build relationships with people and make sure that they help achieve goals in one way or another.
A person who wishes to develop his personal effectiveness must move in these three directions:
- Learn to correctly set your goals;
- Try to use your resources more wisely to achieve them;
- Interact with people to implement your plans.
Methods for increasing personal effectiveness
There are a lot of methods for increasing personal effectiveness, but they all say about the same thing. We have collected for you the 10 most popular ways to increase personal efficiency, and by following at least half of them for several months, you are guaranteed to notice an increase in your performance.
Planning
One of the most important ways to increase efficiency is to plan your day wisely. This is one of the main skills that can increase your performance throughout the day.
Abraham Lincoln was a truly brilliant man who was able to achieve the most ambitious goals only through his personal effectiveness. He worked to the maximum almost always, and this distinguished him from everyone who stood in the way of achieving his goals.
Working according to your goal is the primary area that you will have to work with first. It is best to write down your goals on plain paper - this makes them more tangible. It’s best to carry a goal journal with you and look at it periodically.
But plans for the day are just the tip of the iceberg. Goals should also be set for longer periods. Also, a person should have one goal - a mission that he should align himself with. This is usually a big and ambitious goal that can take almost a lifetime to achieve.
At the same time, drawing up a competent mission is the first step to becoming effective.
It is also advisable to carry a sheet of paper with your main goals and mission with you. It will help answer the question: “Why am I doing this at the moment,” and will also provide additional motivation for work.
Prioritization
Prioritizing is an important skill to learn as soon as you learn how to set your goals. Prioritize – decide which task should be completed first and which one after. Arranging such a sequence allows you to decide on the most important issues at the beginning of the day. important tasks using maximum resources, leaving less effort for secondary ones.
Mark Twain said: “If you eat a frog at the beginning of the day, the rest of the day promises to be wonderful. After all, you have already done all the hardest things.”
That is, you need to complete one large and complex task at once, without putting it off for a long time. After this, everything else will not seem so difficult and you will be able to complete everything without much effort.
Psychologists also share a similar point of view. In a person after performing difficult task there is a surge of endorphins - the hormone of joy, and as a result - an increase in the internal supply of resources. That is, after a difficult task, you will happily take on something less difficult. At the same time, the most enjoyable task should be left for the end. Striving for it will also increase your performance.
Prioritization allows you to choose the biggest and meanest frog, then the slightly smaller frog, and so on.
Concentration
One of the most complex methods that allows you to accelerate personal effectiveness to the maximum.
Concentration - the ability to focus on something specific. That is, when completing a task, you are not distracted by extraneous things, completely devote yourself to the work and complete it much faster.
The problem of concentration today is one of the most pressing issues that psychologists attach importance to.
Some statistics:
- The average length of time a child concentrates on one thing is 7 minutes. For an adult, this figure can increase to 40 minutes.
- After 40 minutes of the same type of work, no matter how creative it is, a loss of concentration and a decline in performance occurs. This has a negative impact on personal effectiveness.
Today there are several methods for improving concentration, but the principle is the same: you need to periodically take breaks and, after long periods of doing the same thing, change your field of activity. One of the oldest, but effective methods maintaining concentration - the Pomodoro method.
The essence of the method is that you need to engage in one type of activity for 25 minutes and after that take a 5-minute rest. After you have done this Pomodoro cycle 4 times, you need to change the activity, even if the work was not finished. And after 1-2 cycles, return to it and finish the job.
There are many other methods that you can learn about online.
Gradually giving up gadgets at work
This follows from the previous paragraph. Mobile phones and tablets negatively affect concentration. They force a person to constantly be distracted by unnecessary information. Gadgets at work should only be used for communication.
Limiting time spent on social networks
Social networks are an ideal tool for reducing personal effectiveness. They take away huge amount time without bringing anything in return. In order to rationally use your personal and working hours, you will need to limit yourself as much as possible in terms of social networks.
Spend as little time as possible on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki, and you will notice that you have much more opportunities to do what you really like.
Monitoring your well-being
Poor health is one of the reasons why a person cannot use his maximum potential. During illness, a person will be practically useless at work, since he will not be able to perform everyday tasks as quickly and efficiently as he did before.
Therefore, it should be remembered that sometimes it is much better to spend 1-2 days to finally recover than to work while sick for 1-2 weeks, thereby reducing your effectiveness.
It also doesn't hurt to relax well before starting work. A hot bath can be a great option for this. For lovers of oriental arts, meditation can be a real salvation. During it, the human body rests in accelerated mode, and literally after 20 minutes of meditation, you will feel a real surge of strength.
Entering Flow State
Flow is the name of a rather interesting psychological state person, which is characterized by peak performance. In such a state, a person is able to give his maximum, or even go beyond his own limits.
In order to enter the flow, you can use internal or external stimulants. Internal stimulants include everything that concerns a person’s personal motivation. External stimulants include everything that one way or another can make a person calm down and tune in to the desired mood.
Suitable for this:
- Suitable premises;
- Hot bath;
- Meditation.
With internal stimulants, things are a little more complicated. They are individual for each person, but they are similar in one thing - they cause a positive charge of emotions, which allows you to focus on one thing for a long time. They also relate to internal motivation. It is enough to learn about your motivational levers, and you can easily influence yourself and enter a state of flow.
Know how to rest
This is one of the most important skills that most people have lost. As they say, in most dictionaries, rest is a change in activity. Therefore, you cannot relax by simply lying on the sofa. You need to do something different that uses your other muscles and abilities.
Changing the type of activity is what you should learn in short terms. If you work with your hands, play chess, poker, force your brain to think. If your work involves mental work, everything is done exactly the opposite - you need to rest, taxing the body physically, without giving it much time to think.
There is a common misconception that people who work a lot on the computer can relax by surfing social networks. But this is far from true. Time spent at the computer negatively affects the eye muscles, as well as the brain, which is forced to filter huge flows of information.
Stop overworking
This point relates to health, but it should be highlighted separately. Each person must clearly understand his limit - the amount of work performed, after which he will harm his body.
We know that the capabilities of the human body are quite large, and it is not uncommon to go beyond one’s own limits, especially when it comes to urgent and important work. But the consequences of such cases are not positive.
In order to competently refuse overtime, you just need to experimentally find out your redistribution - that state when nothing works out anymore, work goes 2-3 times slower, and physical fatigue simply throws you out of balance. And next time, when you reach a similar amount of work, you need to slow down and put it aside for a while, after resting.
Learn to delegate authority
This applies to a greater extent to employees in management positions. Most bosses, especially old-school bosses, try to do most of the company's work alone. And that's wrong. After all, a manager who is busy at an enterprise becomes a worker, but a worker who makes a decision will not become a manager.
That is why it is better to create a clear hierarchical structure, with freedom of choice for each link - to transfer part of the powers that rest with you to the rest, lower working links. This will allow you to relieve yourself and increase the efficiency of each individual link and employee.
The personal effectiveness of a leader is what the entire company rests on. The more efficiently its control unit works, the more management decisions can be accepted, and the better the economic situation of the enterprise will be.
These are fairly simple methods that are known to almost every person. But their implementation may require a significant amount of time. To make the most of them, you need to make these methods your habits.
Laziness and fear of change as obstacles to success
Laziness is the proverbial engine of progress. In fact, this is one of the main brakes that prevents a person from moving on. Along with it comes fear. And for the most part, it is the fear of change.
A person is afraid that in a new environment he will lose stability. And stability for the majority modern people– one of the main aspects of a successful life.
At the same time, if laziness is something that can and should be fought against, and every person understands this, then the fear of change is almost insurmountable alone.
A great way to combat laziness is to develop the habits of successful people. One of the most important methods that you should follow in life is to watch what successful people do and bring it into your life.
Another popular excuse is age.
Let's not focus on this special attention, we will just give a few examples of successful people who realized their ideas at a fairly advanced age:
- Suze Orman is one of the most famous American writers. She worked as a waitress until she was 30. Success came only after 40;
- Harrison Ford - Enough famous director. Until the age of 30 he worked as a carpenter;
- JK Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books. At 31, she was still living on welfare;
- Ray Kroc is the current owner of the McDonald's chain. Until the age of 52 he worked as a traveling salesman;
- Henry Ford - no need to explain who he is. Only at the age of 40 did he manage to launch his first automobile plant.
And there are hundreds and thousands of such examples around the world. That very figure - 30 years, after which a person becomes so difficult to climb, according to statistics remains just a number. It's never too late to start moving forward.
Of course, age makes people’s brains less pliable, information becomes more difficult to assimilate, and new skills are acquired with great difficulty. True, there is one thing. This will be typical for those who simply stopped developing after graduating from school/institute.
If a person pays attention to his personality, studies new information, learns about new issues that interest him, then with 100% probability his brain will work no worse than in school until he is 50-70 years old.
It is no coincidence that we raised the issue of success. After all, the majority of readers who opened this article expect that increasing personal effectiveness will lead them to success.
And in most cases, the criteria for success are: financial well-being, good health and family. It is personal effectiveness that is responsible for a person’s path to success. The more effectively you use your internal resources, the greater your chances of being among truly successful people.
Personal effectiveness and self-education
Here we need to touch on the issue of education and self-education. Let's start with the fact that many people in their lives have thought more than once about personal effectiveness, although they called it by other words.
They read quite a lot on the Internet and bought various books on the topic of how to become rich, famous and successful. And a fairly vivid illustration of all such literature will be the work of Evgeny Gordeev - “how to make a million.” The book consists of 200 pages, 100 of which are taken up by the endless repetition of the word “work”, and the remaining 100 are lined out according to the plan. This is the most truthful book about how to become a successful and rich person.
That is, you need to understand once that there is no such magic pill that will suddenly make you successful and rich. You need to develop, and one of the main directions is to maximize your own effectiveness. From childhood, people are surrounded by useless knowledge without being taught the most important thing - how to set goals, use their own resources and achieve them. That is why the first thing you must learn if you want success is to use your own resources.
Personal effectiveness and comfort zone
The title of another book speaks about how to deal with your comfort zone – “Get Out of Your Comfort Zone. Change your life. 21 methods for increasing personal effectiveness" from Brian Tracy. In order to increase your personal effectiveness, you will need to get out of your comfort zone and into the real world as early as possible.
A person cannot achieve the maximum if he remains stagnant. Of course, your comfort zone is what makes you truly calm and even happy. At the same time, you are marking time and not achieving more.
Successful people never remained in their comfort zone, they endlessly moved forward. A striking example- Founder of the Virgin brand - Richard Branson. A person who has chosen 7 types of activities for his company and continues to expand his business.
Of course, leaving your comfort zone comes with challenges. First of all, it is the fear of failure. The second obstacle is laziness. Third, the wrong environment. All three of these factors negatively affect personal effectiveness, preventing you from using your full potential. It is in order to do your best, set ambitious goals and achieve them, you need to use methods to increase efficiency, implement them in your life and increase your performance to the maximum.
Personal effectiveness in the company
From the personal effectiveness of an individual, let's move on to an entire company or enterprise.
The effectiveness of company employees is no longer a matter of psychology, but of literacy. That is why a good leader must work in several areas at once - study applied psychology (methods of influencing people) and know the basics of management. This combination will allow you to competently manage people and push them in the right direction.
The methodology for improving employee effectiveness is not very different from the personal effectiveness of an individual. At the same time, it will be necessary to build a competent system that will allow you to reward effective workers and somehow influence those who do not work to their maximum.
Motivational systems can be completely different - from monetary (which is not effective enough) to ideological (the most effective).
Let's consider two extremes: and ideological motivation. You can motivate with money for successful completion of work, or for exceeding the plan. But there is a significant drawback - for some workers, money is not the main motivation, and perhaps they do not go to work because of it.
Ideological motivation is the ability to inspire your employees in such a way that they are imbued with the idea of the company and independently come to the conclusion: they need to work to the maximum to help their employer achieve its goals. It's quite complicated, but interesting way, which minimizes the cost of cash rewards, but increases the efficiency of workers.
But in pure form It is almost impossible to find two such methods of motivation. Therefore, employers have to combine several approaches: giving bonuses to particularly distinguished employees, and declaring their high-profile goals at general meetings.
A small life hack for businessmen: a competent mission statement is a great way to motivate employees. The larger, more interesting and “whiter” the company’s mission is, the more employees are willing to believe in it and give it their all.
In addition to the mission, a great way to motivate staff is to lead by example. The story of top manager Lee Iacocca deserves attention in this regard. This top manager took it upon himself to pull Chrysler out of the crisis. And to show all employees that he is part of the team, he set himself a salary of $1 per annum.
These are, of course, extremes, and this method has long been popular and is already somewhat hackneyed. But main principle it’s clear - if you want to inspire your people to do their best - show them how to do it.
Conclusion
Personal efficiency is a person’s ability to complete the tasks assigned to him as efficiently as possible and in a short time. Personal effectiveness is the basis life success, without which the average person will never be able to climb the social ladder.
The psychology of personal effectiveness in the 21st century is such that a person has to protect himself from excessive flows of useless information. That is why a decrease in personal effectiveness should be associated with distractions and the creation of incorrect goals.
Methods for increasing personal effectiveness are quite simple: they all, to one degree or another, include concentration on a specific task, prioritization, and a balance between workload and overwork.
You need to increase your personal effectiveness by developing certain habits, the acquisition of which will have a positive impact on your performance and will bring positive results both in life and in your career.
The performance indicators of employees at the enterprise are what you should pay special attention to. The performance of each employee to the maximum is the main task of management personnel.
There are four mandatory conditions, which are necessary in order to successfully implement the lean manufacturing concept in the office. You should always remember them and implement them, no matter what stage of transformation you are at. Without them you will not succeed. Each of the conditions implies that you will try to understand your employees, explain to them the new principles of work and involve them in the implementation of the new concept. These four conditions represent the foundation on which everything else will rest.
Condition 1. Model “Behavior - Attitudes - Culture”
This condition will minimize staff resistance to change. The first step in implementing lean manufacturing principles is to change the behavior of your employees if you intend to create a culture of continuous improvement in all processes in your organization. Your employees need to understand that making positive changes (i.e. implementing lean principles) will help the organization succeed in the long run.
This condition will help your employees understand why the organization's operating procedures may not be entirely effective. As a company grows and its workload increases, reducing waste should become a top priority across all areas of its operations. Company employees must recognize that each type of administrative process incurs costs. In the section on condition two, we'll explain how to communicate the need for change to staff.
Condition 3. Seven types of losses
Lean manufacturing tools and principles help organizations identify and eliminate seven types of waste. The old saying “You can’t manage what you can’t see” can be rephrased as “You can’t improve what you don’t understand.” It is essential that employees gain basic knowledge about losses and learn to understand them.
Condition 4: Management Commitment
The implementation of lean manufacturing principles must occur from the top down. Managers senior management must be one hundred percent committed to positive change in the company and one hundred percent convinced that to maintain existing successes or achieve new heights, it is necessary to create a lean enterprise. Collaboration between management at the head of the organization and employees interested in change is the key to ensuring that lean principles are not only adopted, but also become an integral part of the company's long-term development strategy.
Condition 1. Model “behavior - views - culture”
To be successful in improving any process, it is critical to understand the behavior and attitudes of the people working in the office or on a given task.
In the 1990s. In the USA, such concepts as “teamwork”, “autonomous work groups”, “employee involvement”, “empowered teams”, etc. arose. Autonomous work groups consisting of ordinary employees were supposed to change the organizational culture of companies. Strict control by managers became a thing of the past, and employees took more and more part in the management of the company. The idea was right, but there weren't enough tools to achieve the desired results. Nevertheless, during the course of such projects we managed to learn a lot of useful things.
When introducing such concepts as “team leader”, “teamwork” and “autonomous work groups” into practice, people were faced with the question of what exactly should be done and how.
Empowerment alone (without special tools) did not bring the desired results. There were some successes, but they were not supported by anything and, consequently, the initiative quickly faded away.
The figure shows that American managers first tried to change corporate culture, expecting a subsequent change in the views and behavior of subordinates. When taking a closer look at lean manufacturing concepts and the Toyota Production System, the researchers discovered a completely different approach. They found that when lean manufacturing tools were used, people's behavior first changed as they sought to identify and eliminate waste. Once workers began to feel that they could control their area, reducing losses and making their work easier, their views changed: they realized the need for continuous improvement of all processes. Along with the views of each individual employee, the culture of the organization as a whole changed radically. The main principle of work was not identifying errors, but preventing them, which, in fact, is the essence of lean manufacturing.
The Behavior-Attitude-Culture model, which is based on the lean philosophy, is simple. Its implementation requires constant efforts from both management and ordinary employees. It is difficult to break habits that have developed at work. For an organization to grow, it takes discipline, determination and perseverance. The first small successes will serve as an impetus for changes in people's behavior and attitudes to changes in the entire organizational culture.
Possession of knowledge
Another important point regarding the traditional approach to organizing office work is that, as a rule, an individual company employee is the bearer of 80% of the knowledge about a particular process. This can cause problems if that employee gets sick, goes on vacation or business, moves to another job, or quits. In these cases, the job cannot be completed. Narrow specialization of personnel and concentration of knowledge in one or a few people can pose serious obstacles to the development of a company.
Since in cases where managers do not have the necessary knowledge (they do not understand a particular process well), they can only provide support to their subordinates, the effectiveness of the organization is compromised for the following reasons:
Building a lean office includes (but is not limited to):
- The focus is on processes, not people.
- Organizational knowledge is easily transferred from one person to another.
- There is a detailed understanding of work processes, which allows for better control and continuous improvement.
- Process knowledge is standardized to ensure maximum uniformity.
- Losses are identified and eliminated as they occur (daily, hourly and minutely).
These five principles will enable the employee to better understand not only own work, but also the work that his colleagues do. Thanks to this, process knowledge is shared within the group.
Change doesn't happen overnight. Any changes should be implemented in stages.
Stage one. Convince others and set the right direction
In most cases, company employees are the carriers of 80% of the information about processes, and managers (or the organization) - 20%. This step also explains why the organization should be the knowledge bearer. It may take up to six months to complete.
Stage two. Organize your workflow
Employees will control only 50% of process knowledge, while managers (or the organization) will control the remaining 50%. The tools will allow you to systematize the knowledge of employees and transfer it to the organization so that positive changes are felt by everyone. This stage can take from six months to one year.
Stage three. Save your results
At the third stage of the transition to creating a lean office, company employees will begin, unnoticed, to participate daily in the continuous improvement of all business processes. 80% of knowledge will now be structured within the new approach to work. It's hard to believe that 100% of process knowledge can be within an organization. At this stage, it is necessary to begin the process of gradual, systematic documentation of knowledge.
The key success factor when implementing the lean manufacturing concept in the office, as well as maintaining the achieved results, is continuous, daily improvement. As your employees' behavior changes, you will need to introduce rewards to recognize the changes. People who easily adapt to change will quickly accept new system. They will immediately see its benefits. Those who adapt to change slowly may resist and cling to old principles. Be patient: sooner or later the new concept will speak for itself, and employees will feel its benefits. You cannot move to a lean office in one fell swoop. You need to take many small, gradual steps every day.
Condition 2. Economic justification for the transition to lean methods
For a company to remain globally competitive, managers need to focus on costs. Administrative, or office, expenses account for the bulk of the cost of a product or service. Administrative costs usually amount to 60-80% of the final price of the product. To remain competitive, companies are intensively reducing their administrative costs. Toyota has created a whole philosophy of cost reduction. Market conditions (the constant in the equation) determine the selling price. Cost and profit are variable quantities. The desire of companies to reduce internal costs served as an impetus for improving all business processes.
Thanks to the philosophy and tools of lean manufacturing, any organization can reduce its internal costs by eliminating waste and thus remain competitive in the global market. To eliminate waste in administrative processes, it must first be identified, and this requires a detailed understanding of what waste is.
Condition 3. Seven types of losses
The goal of lean manufacturing is to identify, analyze and eliminate all waste in the production process. Work to eliminate losses must continue every day, every hour, every minute. The new approach is also advantageous for the department and does not mean cutting people, but using their labor wisely and increasing its value for the organization. Therefore, company management may need to review the job content or job responsibilities of personnel so that they meet the principles of efficient production.
To better understand the concept of lean manufacturing, it is necessary to first understand waste. It is important to identify losses at the lowest level.
Wastes are all operations that require time and resources, but do not add value to the finished product or service. The consumer pays for value; Waste is any transaction your organization makes with a product or service that your customers may be paying for when they shouldn't be. As consumers become more and more aware of the true costs of goods and services, they expect companies to optimize their costs and eliminate waste. Customers demand stable prices and lower prices as a result of savings. The organization's losses have to be paid by consumers. As a result of all this we see that:
- the daily cost of treatment differs in different hospitals;
- the fee for processing a mortgage application, as well as mortgage rates, vary significantly among different lending institutions;
- there is a wide variation in tuition fees in higher education institutions;
- annual interest rates according to different credit cards vary greatly;
- the price for a particular construction project offered by different contractors may vary significantly.
Such variability in all of these examples and many others arises from the amount of loss that is “acceptable” for an organization (regardless of how it is defined).
1. Overproduction
Doing a certain type of work before it is needed is a waste. This is the worst kind of waste because overproduction leads to other losses.
Examples of overproduction:
- compiling reports that no one reads and that no one needs;
- making extra copies of documents;
- sending the same document by email or fax several times;
- entering repetitive information into multiple documents;
- pointless meetings.
Tools to eliminate overproduction:
- takt time;
- pitch;
- standardized work;
- workload balancing;
- studying the need for a particular operation.
2. Waiting (time in line)
Any wait (for people, signatures, information, etc.) is a loss. This type of loss can be compared to a low-hanging apple that is easy to reach, pick and use for its intended purpose. We often don't consider the paper in the incoming tray to be a source of waste. However, remember how many times we go through this tray, trying to find something we need? How many times do you start something before you finish it? To get rid of this type of loss, you need to follow the “finished and filed (or thrown away)” principle.
Examples of losses of the second type:
- large number mandatory signatures and permissions;
- dependence on other employees to perform any tasks;
- delays in obtaining information;
- software problems;
- task execution by different departments;
Tools for eliminating losses of the second type:
- pitch;
- couriers;
- document management system.
3. Movement
Any movement of people, documents, and/or electronic communications that does not create value is waste. This type of waste occurs due to poor office layout, faulty or outdated office equipment and lack of necessary materials. These losses are insidious and invisible in those office processes that have not been analyzed for possible improvements. Regardless of the industry, you can find employees in a company who appear “busy” but don’t actually add value to the product or service. Lean manufacturing tools can help you identify, reduce and/or eliminate Type 3 waste.
Examples of losses of the third type:
- search for files on your computer;
- searching for documents in a file cabinet;
- constantly re-reading reference books in search of information;
- performance of one task by different departments in the absence of effective interaction;
- lack of responsibility for completing a task.
Tools for eliminating losses of the third type:
- standardized work;
- redevelopment of the workspace;
- pull system and supermarket;
- document tracking.
4. Moving
The unnecessary movement of documents affects the time required to complete any work in the office. Even with easy access to the Internet and email, clients are often sent documents of little or no value. To organize effective work, it is important to reduce or eliminate this type of waste, for which all work should be divided into sequential operations and located as close to each other as possible. If you cannot get rid of moving documents between processes, then it needs to be automated as much as possible. Ask yourself questions, for example: “Is the office layout optimal?” or “Is the transfer of documents from one stage of work to another automated?”
Examples of losses of the fourth type:
- sending unnecessary documents;
- too frequent registration of documents in progress;
- too many addresses in the mailing list;
- manual transmission of documents to the next stage of work;
- execution of one task by several departments;
- incorrect prioritization.
Tools for eliminating losses of the fourth type:
- uniform distribution of workload;
- value stream map;
- continuous flow;
- document management system;
- standardized work;
- means of visual control.
5. Overprocessing
Doing work that is not required by internal or external customers is the fifth type of waste. Excessive processing does not create value for the customer and the customer should not pay for it. In administrative processes, these losses are the most difficult to detect. To do this, you can ask the following questions, for example: “What basic operations need to be performed to satisfy the customer’s needs?” or “How clearly do we represent the needs of our customers?”
Examples of losses of the fifth type:
- duplicative reports or information;
- entering repetitive data;
- dissemination of false information;
- constant editing of documents;
- ineffective meetings and lack of agenda;
- lack of clear project planning.
Tools for eliminating losses of the fifth type:
- data collection methods;
- document tracking;
- standardized work;
- document management system.
6. Inventory (time)
Stacks of papers, extra stationery, large number signatures on documents are all losses. They take up space and time. If processing of a document is suspended until it is received additional information(signatures, etc.) and the situation changes, then the time spent on this document can be considered a loss. In an office environment, there are two main types of waste that can be classified as inventory: 1) office supplies and 2) time.
Examples of losses of the sixth type:
- documents awaiting someone's signature or visa;
- work that requires the completion of other processes to continue;
- outdated documents;
- outdated office equipment;
- insufficient training of support staff;
- buying extra office supplies.
Tools for eliminating losses of the sixth type:
- value stream map;
- standardized work;
- Kanban cards for office supplies;
- balancing the workload - heijunka;
- visual pitch;
- document management system.
7. Marriage
Losses due to defects include any processing that resulted in defects and additional processing necessary to eliminate them. A defect (both internal and external) entails additional document processing that does not add value to the product or service. It takes less time to do a job right the first time than it does to redo it. Correction of defects is losses that increase the cost of any product or service, and the consumer does not have to pay for them. Losses of this type can significantly reduce profits.
Examples of losses of the seventh type:
- data entry errors;
- errors in setting prices;
- transfer of incomplete documentation to the next stages of processing;
- loss of documents or information;
- incorrect information in the document;
- ineffective organization of files on a computer or folders in a filing cabinet;
- incorrect selection of employees to serve the client.
Tools for eliminating losses of the seventh type:
- ensuring predictable results;
- visual control means;
- standardized work;
- document management system;
- log of stops and unscheduled tasks;
- short organizational meetings;
- error prevention tools.
8. Irrational use of labor
In many cases, irrational use of labor is the eighth type of waste. People's labor is misused when workers perform tasks that do not require all of their knowledge, skills, and abilities to create value. A proper performance management system can significantly reduce this type of waste. Develop a corporate strategy and methods for assigning employees to those areas where they will bring the most benefit to the organization.
Examples of losses of the eighth type:
- violation of project deadlines;
- uneven distribution of workload due to insufficiently qualified personnel;
- frequent absenteeism and high staff turnover;
- inadequate performance management system;
- insufficient assessment of professional skills before hiring.
Tools for eliminating losses of the eighth type:
- accounting of work processes;
- standardized work;
- document management system;
- short organizational meetings;
- justification for the transition to a lean office.
Consider the following questions.
- How can I convey information about losses to all employees of the organization?
- What losses can be eliminated quickly?
- What can you do to immediately improve customer satisfaction?
These questions will spark reflection for others and help you have a productive dialogue about loss.
Condition 4: Management Involvement
Companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Federal Express, GE and Nike have one thing in common, a very important feature - an undisputed leader at the head, whom others follow. Top managers Bill Gates, Sam Walton and Fred Smith are the core of their company. They are distinguished by exceptional insight, and it is they who have turned their business into an immortal empire.
John Maxwell, in his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” describes his first law, the law of the ceiling: “The ability to lead determines the level of effectiveness of a person (organization). Strong leadership greatly enhances an organization's capabilities. If leadership is weak, then the organization's capabilities are limited."
It is important to understand that the transition to lean management is impossible without the full participation of the company's management. When general manager After reading about lean manufacturing in the Wall Street Journal on the plane back from vacation, telling his top manager, “There’s something there,” doesn’t mean he’s ready for long-term change.
The company's management should be driven by the desire for improvement. The top manager must take an active part in the implementation of new principles. Even if a business process redesign pilot project involves three people, the company's top management should be involved. This participation includes:
- allocation of necessary resources;
- attendance at the kick-off meeting;
- consulting the team if necessary;
- showing interest in the team’s achievements and attending team meetings;
- rewarding the team based on work results;
- support for team members in case of difficulties.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it outlines key ways that company management can demonstrate its commitment to lean management.
Time frame
Transitioning to a lean office can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. This will depend on the following factors:
- Organization size. The smaller the organization, the less time it will take. In large companies (more than 500 office workers) pilot projects should be started in one department first and then expanded to the entire company.
- Availability of necessary tools.
- Realizing the benefits. The reorganization of office work will be successful if the company realizes the need to train staff in related professions, cooperate between departments, attract generalists rather than narrow specialists, use organizational knowledge and encourage partnerships between managers and subordinates.