Productivity: More About Teamwork Than Tech

In this series, professionals share their secrets to being more productive. Read the posts here, then write your own (use #ProductivityHacks in the body).

A few years ago, Accenture conducted some global research among businesses that found middle managers spend more than a quarter of their time searching for information necessary to their jobs. Even worse, we uncovered the fact that much of what they were able to find wasn’t even useful. Today, this issue of job efficiency continues to challenge us all as we grapple with information overload.

When the issue of productivity improvement is raised, the discussion often launches straight into a list of clever pieces of technology, be they apps or platforms, as great ways to become more efficient. There is clear value in being able to better manage emails or tasks, consolidate information and newsfeeds.  But while technology can help make us more efficient, for me the improvements in productivity start with stronger teamwork and good delegation.

I am not saying technology doesn’t have a role to play – in fact I’ll list some of my favourite technologies I use all the time for work. But I firmly believe that you are able to get the best of colleagues through the way they are able to operate and do their job. At the start of my career when I began to work in teams, I learned that it is important for all the people in the team to be working on the right objective, but how they get there should not be prescribed.

One of the most important elements of delegation is about control and accepting there are multiple ways of achieving your goals. You can all have the same end point, but your way is not the only way to get there. For many leaders, this is hard to accept, but if you can be flexible on how work gets done, release the control, you better enable people to get the results you are all seeking to achieve. Collaboration requires good people management and the relaxation of control enables other people to work to their best abilities. You have to agree on what needs to be achieved, not instruct how they do it. This can help break down the silos that prevent creativity – something that often comes more naturally to start-ups.

So, what about the technology that can complement how we all work? There are some great apps out there, like Namerick, that helps you remember names, or Evernote, a platform to view, organize, and modify all current projects. There’s a great list of them here.  I use WhatsApp a lot with my teams. It is so simple and the technology allows fast, quick communication, checking in with people around the world, asking a question and getting a response from an individual when they are next with their device. You can leave a message for someone to pick up overnight and receive an answer once your colleague gets up.

In business and in our personal lives, technology can improve communication and how well we collaborate. Skype for Business is great, you can dial into the call using VOIP – which saves money, you can see who is on the call with you and follow a presentation, or invite additional people on to the call. And there’s the instant message capability, which everyone uses. The impact on my monthly phone bill is great!

One technology tool I've been using lately is Crystal. It allows you to search for people and, based on their digital footprint, you can find a profile of their personality. It provides their online social style. It is very interesting. You can get a feel for the personality of someone you are about to meet for the first time. It provides some useful insight. If you combine it with LinkedIn to get the profile and background, you get a more complete picture of someone before you come face to face for the first time.

However, in my view, behind all these tools, there has to be the right collaborative approach. Collaboration may require you to adjust your approach to a particular goal – and by that I mean you may need to be less specific on how you want to reach the goal in order that you foster creativity. I leave you with a final thought. There’s a theory that people are working inefficiently because they are not getting their to-do lists right. Some academics feel that shorter lists don’t get actioned, others argue that we need to focus on small steps, not the big goal, as part of a good ‘to-do’ list. I disagree, it is about getting the order of the to-do list right: making sure others are working effectively on the team’s objectives needs to happen before getting your own stuff done. Having the big goals on the list keeps you focused on what matters!