Productivity Blog

by Walter McFarland  |  11:00 AM October 16, 2012 Why can’t we change our organizations? Year after year, the list of companies that no longer exist because they were unable to evolve continues to grow. It includes such household names as Sunbeam, Polaroid, Tower Records, Circuit City, and Drexel Burnham Lambert. After six decades of study, untold investment, and the best efforts of scholars, executives, and consultants, most organizational change … Continue reading →

They Work Long Hours, but What About Results? By ROBERT C. POZEN Published: October 6, 2012 IT’S 5 p.m. at the office. Working fast, you’ve finished your tasks for the day and want to go home. But none of your colleagues have left yet, so you stay another hour or two, surfing the Web and reading your e-mails again, so you don’t come off as a slacker. Enlarge This Image … Continue reading →

Ten Ways to Get People to Change by Morten T. Hansen  |   8:00 AM September 21, 2012 How do you get leaders, employees, customers — and even yourself — to change behaviors?  Executives can change strategy, products and processes until they’re blue in the face, but real change doesn’t take hold until people actually change what they do. I spent the summer reviewing research on this topic. Here is my … Continue reading →

April 7, 2009, 2:08 PM ET Motivating Employees Why do people work? That’s the single most important question in the field of management. How you answer it can tell volumes about your management style. The most common answer is: “Because they have to.” If you believe that, you are likely to favor tactics like punch clocks, close supervision and constant nagging, minimizing any opportunity for your workers to shun their … Continue reading →

It’s been a few years since the book and movie that made the fire-breathing Miranda Priestly come alive.  Meryl Street made her show us just how terrible this type of employer can be in the 2006 film, “The Devil Wears Prada” and Lauren Weisberger in her 2003 book brought her to life originally.  If you saw the movie, just think back to some of the more juicy scenes where Streep would … Continue reading →

It’s been a few years since the book and movie that made the fire-breathing Miranda Priestly come alive.  Meryl Street made her show us just how terrible this type of employer can be in the 2006 film, “The Devil Wears Prada” and Lauren Weisberger in her 2003 book brought her to life originally.  If you saw the movie, just think back to some of the more juicy scenes where Streep would … Continue reading →

Friday, February 3, 2012 INFORMATION OVERLOAD COSTS U.S. COMPANIES $650 BILLION A YEAR I was recently reading an article in Business Insider by Kim Bhasin.  It’s link is http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-how-information-overload-affects-you-in-the-workplace-2012-2  Bhasin suggests that information overload costs U.S. companies $650 billion each year.  Now I can only imagine that the number is huge, but I thought to myself that was huge, so I reviewed Bhasin interesting article.  It is done in an … Continue reading →

Monday, February 20, 2012 Listening to the Great Ideas of your Employees!! On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, the Wall Street Journal wsj.com had a great article entitled, “Boeing Teams Speed Up 737 Output.”  The link for this article is: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203436904577155204034907744.html?KEYWORDS=David+Kesmodel Boeing Teams Speed Up 737 Output Jet Maker’s Innovation Crews Search for Ways to Streamline Production as Aircraft Demand Soars By DAVID KESMODEL RENTON, Wash.—As Boeing Co. strives to lift … Continue reading →

On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, the Wall Street Journal wsj.com had a great article entitled, “Boeing Teams Speed Up 737 Output.”  The link for this article is: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203436904577155204034907744.html?KEYWORDS=David+Kesmodel Boeing Teams Speed Up 737 Output Jet Maker’s Innovation Crews Search for Ways to Streamline Production as Aircraft Demand Soars By DAVID KESMODEL RENTON, Wash.—As Boeing Co. strives to lift production of its best-selling 737 jetliner to meet surging airline demand, it … Continue reading →

I was recently reading an article in Business Insider by Kim Bhasin.  It’s link is http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-how-information-overload-affects-you-in-the-workplace-2012-2  Bhasin suggests that information overload costs U.S. companies $650 billion each year.  Now I can only imagine that the number is huge, but I thought to myself that was huge, so I reviewed Bhasin interesting article.  It is done in an info-graphic style.  If you review the total set of statistics provided and then … Continue reading →