Productivity – Beyond A Buzzword

This year we are focusing on productivity, and what it really means to us as a small business. Towards the end of 2021 we implemented a trial of 4.5-day working weeks, starting our weekends at 12:30 on Fridays. We aspire to make this a 4-day working week but first we need to make sure this works for our clients, our associates, and the health of the business.

According to a Forbes article, in 2019, Microsoft Japan tested reducing the workweek by one day, which led to a 40% boost in productivity. They also saved 23% on their electricity bill. It sounds win-win! But how do we achieve these types of figures?

We talked openly about means, methods, fears and hopes for productivity at our team strengths building day in January. This was a vital first step. We each tried different tools/apps, journals, work planning methods with some successes here and there but nothing to concretely show a big up-swing in outputs.

To really push a cultural shift, we decided it would help to do things differently across many activities instead of just focusing on tasks. So, in February we started having one of our weekly Monday meetings outside of the Studio, in a café or gallery or hotel. Somewhere to stimulate the senses. This required planning to make sure we didn’t lose an entire morning; we start at 11:00 for chatting with a strict meeting start at 11:30. Everyone brings a list of what they need to raise, and we take turns to chair/note-take. It has made the meetings more focused and is energising too.

In March, we started monthly Ideas Labs and monthly morning rave sessions. The Ideas Lab is a voluntary, lunchtime drop-in to throw ideas around on improving current products and services or developing new ones. We also started monthly news article discussions; one person a month shares an article that interests them, and we take 30 mins one morning to talk about it. It can be any topic. 

But what about the raves we hear you ask? Well, these are about fun AND energy. Scheduled for the third Wednesday of every month they act as a pick-me-up at a point in the month when momentum might be flagging. Again, it is voluntary, the playlist is 1990s rave, the coffee table is pushed back, and we dance! We also juice, using up all the office fruit stocks with some root ginger to put a zing in our step. Starting at 08:30 and finishing promptly at 09:30 not only is it a great workout but the ravers are finding they run at the day’s tasks afterwards.

In May, we started a trial with a smaller group within the team to try some of the classic techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, the Ivy Lee Method and others. Steve Jobs once said…

 ‘INNOVATION IS ABOUT SAYING ‘NO’ TO A THOUSAND THINGS’

This really struck a chord with us. What we needed to focus on wasn’t doing more work in less time but doing less work to achieve more benefits. It sounds weird, but bear with us! The Pareto Principle dictates: 80% of your return is coming from 20% of your work. We started listing what of our work falls into 20% direct return and 80% supporting work. We then concentrated on the 80% to assess what we can put in place to streamline these giving more time to the 20% activities. If we can turn this 20% into 40%, we’ll be at 160% output for less than half the work. Sounds like the dream!

We are cautiously excited and willing to keep pushing ourselves to try, fail, adapt and try again. And we’ll keep you posted on the highs and lows, promise.