Friday, July 22, 2011

Doing more with less is dead, this is about doing things differently

The old adage of doing more with less is the final vestige of those who fail to understand just how profoundly our society is changing. Someone should put a bullet in it, because quite frankly it needs to die.

Look at what is happening across the pond, the reality is that we can't even afford to do more with less, we have to do things fundamentally differently; and that means re-imagining things from the ground up, and breaking out of old mental models.


Let's start right now

We live and work in a knowledge economy, so let's start acting like it. People entering the workforce today already own enabling technology, they already know how to collaborate with others, and use the social web to their advantage.

So why do we force them into cubicles, Windows 2000, and a heavily filtered internet connection (or worse no internet connection at all) when they've spent the last 4 years honing their skills in coffee shops, with Macbooks and wifi?

I can't possibly be the only person out there who thinks that we are imposing structures on employees that fundamentally undermine their ability to perform; and as any management book will tell you under-performing employees are a burden.


But that's just the tip of the iceberg

Let's stop to consider the money we spend on building the structure that undermines their performance in the first place. We hire ill equipped managers, force staff into cubicles they despise, give them hardline phones they don't use, strap them with mobiles that are contrary to their tastes, and handcuff them to old PCs that take five minutes to boot up in the morning. Wait there's more, consider all the the people we employ to run the processes that hire the terrible managers or configure the cubicles or procure the offensive and outdated technology in the first place.


The overhead of agony alone is incredible

... and the fact that we continue to pay for it when we can no longer afford it tells me that we aren't all that serious about doing things differently.

Someone prove me wrong, please.



Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.ca
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[image credit: rob_moody]

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