Productivity – A Path to Profit

The Four Profit Basics
1.Increase your Sales Revenue
2.Decrease your Cost of Sales
3.Decrease your Operating Expenses
4.Increase your Productivity
Let’s look now at the last of those – Productivity – in a little more detail.

The Ten Productivity Basics

Increasing productivity is a simple case of “producing more outputs from the same or less inputs” and while one of the more intriguing aspects of improving productivity is through “using different inputs” (i.e. innovation, or doing things differently), here we’re going to look at the most-easily-improved aspect – that of increasing the output from our human inputs.

How People Respond

As a general rule a healthy, well-adjusted human being will respond positively to Reward and Recognition, and negatively to Punishment and Neglect, so let’s see what lessons or insights we can spin from this most basic of observations.

1. People Move Away From Discomfort and Towards Comfort

We never cease to be amazed at the people who, when their dog strays away, bellow and threaten to ‘encourage’ it to come back – and are then frustrated when it doesn’t.

Don’t they realise that their dog is smart enough to work out that moving towards them is towards pain and discomfort? Don’t they realise that the dog is far more likely to come if it believes there is a prospect of comfort, fun or pleasure at its destination?

What does this have to do with the way we treat those who work with us?

Many frustrated managers, who take the same negative, discouraging and threatening stance to delivering outcomes, share the same bewilderment as the dog owner.

So, what could they do differently in future to ensure a different outcome?

2. Negative Reinforcement Promotes Erratic Responses

People who are under threat to do something will usually comply out of self-interest – albeit under duress and in bad grace – for just about as long as they perceive the threat as real.

Conversely, that same duress, bad grace and self interest will usually cause them to stop complying when that threat no longer looks as real or immediate. So, when people are motivated using any form of negative reinforcement, the usual outcome is inconsistent compliance or performance. Don’t be surprised by this any more, as you now know the reason!

Threats are not only demotivating, they are usually debilitating, depriving both parties of positive energy that could be channelled effectively towards achieving a desired end result.

Anyone expecting consistent performance using a negative reinforcement would need a strong police force – and that’s “expensive” in terms of resources.

Positive rewards usually promote consistent responses because they are easily internalised and savoured after the fact; they are inherently uplifting and energising, and their effect tends to linger. And a police force isn’t required!

If you were to analyse everything from your incentive programs to the language in your Operations Manuals or Code of Conduct (your ‘rulebook’), what percentage of that material would be wholly positive in its orientation, and how much of it negative?

What would it take to convert every negative (away-from) motivation to positive (towards) motivation?

And if you did that, how would everyone feel about it?

3. Consistent Reinforcement Quickly Sets Behavioural Patterns

The fastest way to institute a pattern of behaviour is to reinforce every instance of its occurrence. So, if you wish to quickly establish a new behavioural habit in your team, positively recognise and reward every instance of it. (Yes, we know that can be expensive, so wait for the next bit).

Once you have established the relationship between “do that and get this reward” and have instilled the behaviour as a new soft habit (soft because if you don’t reward, you won’t get the behaviour), it’s time to harden the habit so that people continue to do the desired behaviour even in the absence of the reward.

To harden the habit, gradually increase the instances of the behaviour required to earn positive reinforcement. Then introduce some irregularity into the attenuation (sometimes reinforce after two instances, sometimes after six, occasionally every time and then not again for a while). This has the effect of building the expectation that sooner or later this is going to be recognised and rewarded. When you think about it, that’s exactly the same principle that leads people to play poker machines or lotto.

Eventually the behaviour becomes habitual, and does not require reinforcement to be continued, often over a long time frame.

So, what’s the basic principle and process here, and how could you apply those in your own situation?

The Other Seven Productivity Tips

1.Why Rewards Can Cost A Lot, But Be Valued Little
2.Three Parts Recognition To One Part Reward Is The Best Glue
3.How People Can Learn To Expect A Better Outcome
4.Why Good Feelings Are Rewards
5.Can Optimism Be Its Own Reward – And Motivation?
6.Why Focus On The Behaviour?
7.Whatever You Focus On Will Increase
We’ll cover another batch of the remaining Seven Tips in another blog but, for those who just can’t wait and must have the full template for improving your team’s productivity (and your own leadership skills) right now, please click here .