The Second Big Secret in Increasing Output

Have the right objective.

Do you sit at your desk worrying that your microwave or lawnmower is not being used at this very moment? Probably not.

This is because your objective is not that the microwave or lawn mower is in constant use, but more that you are able to cut the lawn or cook your meal when you need to at a time convenient to you.

Let me as you another question. Do you set yourself an objective of ‘Spend 25 minutes doing the washing-up’?  And when you finish it in just 19 minutes, do you stand around and look as though you are still doing the washing up for another 6 minutes? I doubt it. So why do we do this at work?

Why do we organise whole systems around this philosophy?

It’s madness.

As a production manager I was astonished to discover that most production managers thought that their sole purpose was to keep the people in their department occupied. They got very upset if someone seemed to have nothing to do. Even if they had finished all that had to be done that day.  The production manager would rather people did unnecessary tasks than enjoyed themselves, or heaven forbid; go home early.

This still seems to be the objective of many organisations; to keep their people occupied.

Unfortunately when this is your objective you tend to organise things in very inefficient ways.

Take waiting lists for example.

I was watching a hospital consultant being interviewed recently. He thought waiting lists were a good thing because it meant he knew he had work. He seemed not to realise that, for a patient, waiting six weeks is not what you want.

He had forgotten that his primary responsibility was to meet the needs of his patients, not to meet his need to have a waiting list.

He was worried that no one would want him if he didn’t have a waiting list! I think the opposite would be true. How many of us would like to be able to see a top consultant that day when we are in pain or have a serious medical problem?

The objective needs to be written in terms of how to meet the needs of the patient or customer, not the provider of the service.

There will always be a need

Another key point is that, if there is always a waiting list of six weeks (or two years in some cases) and it’s always been like that, then it follows that there always will be a need. So the consultant need not worry.

If he or she can get rid of the waiting list, there will still be a steady stream of patients or customers needing his or her services.

Have the right objective

Once you have the objective of resolving the customer’s or patient’s problem in a matter of hours, then you can start to work out how to do it.

It’s a very different solution than ‘keeping yourself occupied’.

If you need more help on objectives have a look at my booklet How to Write Objectives That Work

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