Welcome to Amanda’s semi-regular blog, where she writes about how to improve business profitability
What a Faulty Laptop Can Teach Us About Productivity Culture
After 24 years as a loyal customer, my recent experience with a well-known business PC supplier has been nothing short of eye-opening. What started with a faulty laptop spiralled into months of back-and-forth troubleshooting, escalating costs, and a complete breakdown in customer care.
This isn’t just a story about a laptop—it’s a case study in poor productivity culture. The issues I faced highlight inefficiencies that are all too common in organisations with problematic cultures: rework, returns, refunds, and disengaged employees.
Measuring productivity
Productivity measurement is one of the most important factors in the success of a business. It is vital, and sadly very few people know how to do it.
Write process not a manifesto
I’m reading Neurodiversity at Work[i] at present, a recent publication by Amanda Kirby and Theo Smith. In it they say: We also need to ensure that diversity and inclusion is a part of all our processes and not a policy that is written and then stuck in a drawer.
I would argue that all too often processes are written and then stuck in a folder/drawer and never communicated, followed or implemented…
Why are we so afraid of difference?
I recently engaged in the services of a virtual assistant. I had two really great candidates to choose from in the final lineup, and quite honestly could have engaged either one of them. In order to make a decision, I decided to pick the one that was least like me. Whilst it’s often tempting to recruit people like us, from a business and productivity point of view, recruiting for difference is often the smarter move.
When organisations lose their way
When we think about the promise, the commitments an organization makes to its customers, the very essence of for what it stands, it is hard to imagine a situation where nobody knows what this is.
Promise and expectation alignment
Every organisation, whether a membership organisation, a food manufacturer or a professional services firm, creates in its clients an expectation. It does this through the expression of its promise. This expectation may be written and specific, or unwritten and implied.
Do you have a team of sherpas?
One of the challenges of growing a business is ensuring that the staff you employ are as productive as you used to be when you were delivering the products or services. I know when I used to run a software company, we were never as productive once I stopped writing code. There are so many reasons why this might be the case, and one of these lies in the engagement of the people in the business.
What promise do you make?
Any business that has ever traded, will be known for something. Often, they are not known for the right thing. Your promise is at the heart of everything you do as a business. It is why people pay you; a form of contract, explicit or implied, that describes what you are going to deliver. If you live up to that promise, consistently, you will be loved, if you fail, it will result in unhappy customers, staff and suppliers.
Are you a pyramid, a frustum or an irregular polyhedron?
The most productive companies understand their economic engine as Jim Collins refers to it, and have it turning faster and faster. Those running them can make decisions quickly and are energised by their businesses rather than shackled by it.