If your portfolio is your central nervous system and leadership is your DNA, then productivity is the circulatory system of your organisation. A resilient organisation is one that has a strong awareness of and can monitor its value flow.
In a previous post, we identified the top three tips for productivity, and here we'd like to go into some more detail, but first a note on productivity. As long-time productivity geeks, we’ve found that the most important thing to understand about productivity—whether personal or for a team—is that it’s not about doing more stuff in less time. It’s about making the value creation process better from the ground up.
Here are our top three tips for boosting organisational productivity:
1. Limit the WIP
This might seem counterintuitive, but limiting the work in progress can have the biggest impact on your organisation. The idea is based on the Theory of Constraints: every system of work has constraints, and you can get the most value out of the system by working with them.
A good way to start is to ruthlessly prioritise the work flowing through your value streams. You need to figure out what is truly valuable to your organisation and then apply a process based on that criteria. This should be a collaborative effort to ensure the whole organisation is aligned. The most important thing to remember is the Highlander rule: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE NUMBER ONE.
Once you've prioritised, set a limit on how many items can be in progress in a given value stream at any one time. Measure the number of value items completed in a set period to determine your throughput, or "speedometer." Make small adjustments to the WIP limit and continue to monitor your throughput to see if it's improving or declining.
2. Visualise Value Streams
Value Stream Mapping is a powerful tool that helps you visualise how value flows through your organisation, from the moment a customer requests something to the moment they receive it.
Start by mapping your processes, but also include the time spent on each step and the flow of information. This helps you use Lean principles to find areas where you can improve productivity. When you make changes, treat each one as an experiment and monitor the throughput and lead time to see if the improvements are working.
3. Create a Culture of Commitment and Accountability
These three tips are designed to work together to build a robust organisation. For a team to be truly committed, they need a clear understanding of what the top priority is and why. Once that commitment is in place, you can focus on building accountability.
The formula for accountability is simple:
Accountability = Commitment + Transparency
Since we've already covered commitment, the next step is transparency. You can achieve this with two simple steps:
Following these three tips will set your organisation on the path to becoming a productive and robust business.