Improving Employee Productivity

By Gini Scott

2001-05-21

Employee productivity can often be hampered by outdated practices that interfere with creating new and improved procedures. More frustrating still, after developing improved ways, managers often face challenges when conveying the changes to the employees, as resistance to change often occurs. Even CEOs and company owners have this resistance problem, and as a HR professional, you often have to get top executives on your side to spearhead the change effort.

A technique that will help you both in coming up with new procedures and selling them to employees and top executives is using creative visualization or mental imaging. This process will help you first imagine what new improved methods might look like, and second, how you can best position and promote these changes.

The visualization process works by finding a time and place where you can engage in some quiet reflection (though as you develop this ability you can do it anywhere and anytime - even in a high-powered business meeting). Then, see the situation you want to think about in your mind's eye. Some good ways to do this are imagining that you have a movie screen or computer monitor and your scenes are unfolding on the screen or monitor.

In our example, you want to improve employee productivity. Pick a particular area you want to improve, such as a division or department in the company, or even zero in on a particular employee who is having problems. If you are already familiar with how that department, division, or individual is working on a day-to-day basis, you can start this process right away.

If not, take some time before visualizing to familiarize yourself with current operations. Ideally, observe what a particular person is or group of people are doing for an hour or two or even a day, as if you are an anthropologist visiting a new culture. Before you begin, explain what you are doing to those whom you'll be observing in a supportive way to indicate that the goal is to help improve performance, not to criticize current practices. Advise employees you will be asking for their input, as well. Then, stay in the background as you observe and take notes. Or if you can't observe, conduct a short open-ended interview with the employees or particular individual to discuss what they do.

Once you have this information about current operations, you are ready to visualize making changes. To do so, get relaxed and watch what these employees are doing on the movie screen or computer monitor in your mind's eye. As you continue to observe, ask yourself a series of questions, and make notes as you observe, speak into a tape-recorder, or write down your observations soon after you finish observing. Start the process with general questions related to the situation you want to improve, such as: "What kinds of blocks or obstacles are interfering with the employees being more productive?" or "What can these employees do differently to be more productive?" Then, watch what happens. Often the picture will begin to change, and you will see the answer appear on the screen.

As necessary add probes, such as: "How can employees do it faster?" "How can they improve accuracy?" "How can they improve communication to better understand what to do?" Again, you will often find the answers come to you as you pose the question.

Being open to the answers that come to you is a key to success. Once you are aware of the situation, you'll begin to ask better and better questions. As you work with the process, your ability to imagine what to do will improve. Similarly, you can use this approach to help you determine what to do to sell the changes you have visualized to employees or to the top executives who will spearhead these changes.

By Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., J.D. Gini is the Director of Changemakers and the author of three books on creativity and innovation: Mind Power: Picture Your Way to Success in Business and The Empowered Mind: How to Harness the Creative Force Within You (both from Prentice-Hall) and The Innovative Edge (out in September 2001 from Ronin Publishing). Gini’s Web site is at www.giniscott.com.