The year 2020 has started in a weird way. And the current virus situation many companies start to struggle. In this context, I see many leaders react in the same way: push for targets!

Here an example. The productivity team has a target to achieve 4 million savings in production costs. Initially a tough objective. Now, imagine production slumps down 20%. We have reached our target. Do we celebrate? Did we really get more excellent? How will our productivity results look like if production is increased by 20%?

Instead of focusing on lagging indicators and financial targets, I advocate to look at how do we operate. How do our structures support collaboration in cross-functional teams? How well are we aligned and promote transparency? Can I talk about my mistakes? Who is listening to my ideas?

Companies that want to achieve sustainable success, need to look more at how we are doing business, focus more on values and principles. Look at the financial indicators once in a while to see if we are on the right track. And, set targets to operate in an effective way - especially for yourself as a leader.

​For the last about 150 years, we have become very good at becoming efficient. We have automated farming, manufacturing, and are full steam ahead in automating services.

In this process, we focused on making individuals and small units hyper-efficient. We looked at organisations as a system and producing in large scale based on rigid processes; using people as robots in these systems.

Today, the world is changing rapidly, predictions become less accurate and the systems don't operate in a stable environment anymore. In this context, how do we know that we are optimising the right processes and systems? Are we wasting efforts on the wrong things?

In order to be fast and successful in this uncertain environment, I suggest to focus back on the effectiveness of the overall organisation. Cultivating our relationships with peers, suppliers, customers. And, creating structures and routines which allow us to learn fast, reflect and focus on the right things.

Where do you want to reduce waste today?

​We at Hive17 Consulting are devoted to creating an environment for people to work with passion, engagement and fun via positive leadership and intrinsic motivation. We believe that it takes more than perfect processes, systems, organizational charts and value statements to make your company successful. Our people need to understand, shape and believe in the change journey. And for us, it is clear that this foundation will unleash people’s full potential.

What is the difference between Efficient and Effective?

This is a very illustrative video that shows how difficult it is to shoot for short-term efficiency. In my eyes, effectiveness means I am creating a platform that enables to deliver excellent results in a sustainable way - again and again.

How do you create this platform of excellence?
> agree on a purpose, an ambition, common results
> provide autonomy on how to reach these results
> engage in frequent conversations and enable a smooth journey
> join them in their quest, support as a participant

How do you see this happening in your work?

FranklinCovey: the Win-win Agreement

​Today, in our production facilities in Thailand we started to discuss how we can execute ideas to improve productivity in a different way: achieve results in a faster way while keeping the big picture in mind.

The excellent outcome of today's workshop was the definition of Focus Topics. We took the solution ideas we created during a Design Thinking workshop in August and modularised them into smaller chunks that can be implemented as minimal viable products. The teams have now selected the first Focus Topic which will be implemented in the next three months. The graphic below vitally supported the understanding of this concept - visualisation is such an important aspect in discovery.

The objective of this approach is not only to create tangible results fast; we also aiming to cultivate agility and a new mindset. Looking forward to see the results soon.

​First we created a good understanding of the needs and insights, which helped to explore a wide range of ideas. Then the teams crafted prototypes and presented their pitches.

All these activities will greatly impact manufacturing excellence; and we can already see the positive impact we made on the people; triggering mindset shifts and better work relationships:
"We were able to bring issues on the table with a smile and positive energy; this was never possible before."

​And that's when I find myself working in a coworking space in Taipei city. What is my experience? Yes, tech today is enabling this... More important, I feel a surge of new energy and focus on my work tasks. The change in scene helps to keep distractions low (that's a surprise) and discipline on the defined tasks high.

In the context of people excellence this is an example to let people choose where and when to work - autonomy is a great driver for motivation. For sure the purpose and objectives need to be clear. We learn every day...

Oh, and yes, it helps to pay a bit of money to get a professional workplace - for me, it doesn't work well in a coffee place.

​It is Friday and in today's "Quick Share" I am pondering about how close change management and knowledge management are.

A long time ago I was very deep into Knowledge Management; and one key topic was making communities (of practice) successful.

When you are doing this, you realise that you need a lot of change management expertise; that is why I evolved into a change management professional.

Today, I am driving innovation, new mindsets, nudging new cultures - guess how - with communities. This is a very interesting reflection.
Why communities? Because they bring people closer, build relationships, facilitate to have common grounds, etc.

Where do you bring people together to work together outside of their daily job?

​Today's 'Quick Share' is about Objectives & Key Results (OKRs). Many heard about them, many use them - totally independent of region or industry. So, I am not going to explain how this works...

Here are three reasons, why I advocate them:
1 - pushing people to think about what they want to achieve in three months makes these results pretty concrete; plus, it creates more dynamic (or agility?)
2 - leaders get the opportunity to provide autonomy to a team and let them define their own goals together; under the leaders guidance
3 - in the end, the success is not done with defining the OKRs; they success comes in the weeks and months achieving results; this happens via frequent conversations; conversations about prioritisation, actions, collaboration

What do you learn from implementing OKRs?

​It is 'Quick Share' time and let's look at People Excellence. I spoke about this topic last week and I received a great amount of confirmation for this.

For the last 150 years we keep automating - farming, then manufacturing and now services. This created a mindset that we can control people. In recent years, neuroscience showed people work better when we give them more freedom; with less control we achieve more.

I think we need to focus more on the humans around us:
1. Engage in conversations and get out from behind the screens
2. Let's care about the things we are doing
3. Create a drive in people with purpose, autonomy and mastery

Today's 'Quick Share' is about how do I get a productive day? So here is what I do:
1 - the evening before, I set my 2-3 tasks for the next day
2 - when I arrive at the office, I focus on task 1 first (no e-mails)
3- then after the first (mindful) break, I am going through my e-mails

Here is the article that inspired me; in essence:
> get rid of distraction
> follow your own priorities (and not others')

Happy Friday

​10 daily tasks that will help you become successful over time

​A quick "Friday Share" on what is the essence of productivity:
1. intent - know what are your objectives
2. focus - remove the distractions
3. sustainable effort - keep a level of effort that you can keep for a while

Shared by Andy Puddicombe