How to build a great culture and climb the productivity ladder

The focus of management should be on creating a culture in which employees can concentrate on the work that will have the most positive impact on their firm and stop wasting their time because of poor work practices, writes Dermot Crowley.

During the past 15 years I have worked in many organisations and firms with individuals and teams to improve their personal productivity.

I am passionate about this work, but at times I have become frustrated by the fact that great training and coaching can be undone by the culture within an organisation. When it comes to productivity, this problem is prevalent. Individuals come back from a training day all fired up about the potential of their new skills. They are ready to change the habits of a lifetime. However, for all their attempts to work more proactively, the reactive culture in which they work can drag them back into getting bogged down on ‘urgent’ matters and putting out fires.

For all their desire to get to the work that will have the greatest impact, their time gets squandered dealing with operational issues which are often caused by someone else’s poor work practices or lack of planning. Even with the best intentions to create space for the important work, their time gets taken up with endless meetings and a deluge of emails.

Holistic approach the key

I believe organisations need to go beyond just sending people on productivity training courses, and work more holistically on productivity. They need to build a culture that allows productivity to flourish. They need to ensure that everyone in the organisation has the right skills, tools and protocols in place to maximise their potential and enable them to deliver on it. The following model outlines the different productivity cultures that can exist within a firm, and what needs to happen to move up the ladder to embed a truly productive culture.

Destructive – A firm that has a destructive culture potentially has influential individuals or teams that actively kill productivity. They operate in a way that may be productive for them, but at the expense of others. They are aware of the negative impact that their behaviour has, but justify it by suggesting that their work is more important. In this situation, the leadership team needs to change the agenda and address what is happening with strong conviction. The productivity of the many cannot be ruined by the productivity of the few!

Disruptive – It may be that productivity is being killed from within, but without malice intent. Sometimes we are just not aware of the negative impact that our behaviour has on others. Our poor use of email is a good example of this. We often do not realise how our overuse of CC and Reply All kills other people’s productivity. If this is the case, we need to raise awareness across the firm.

Passive – In some situations there is a passive culture; one that has neither a bad nor a good impact on productivity. In this scenario, many people cobble together a way of managing their work and priorities that does the job, but it is not effective. Many productive hours a week can be lost through ineffective systems and inefficient habits. The key to getting people over the first productivity tipping point is improving their ability to manage their time, priorities and information. This is where skills training comes in. If we can build the culture up to the next level, we really see a leveraged boost to productivity over a long period.

Supportive – As mentioned previously, the challenge with just throwing training at the problem is that those people may come back into a culture that does not support their new skills or systems. So the next focus should be on understanding how we work together and developing a set of agreements or protocols that enhance team productivity. This reduces the risk of productivity being dragged down.

Collaborative – Once an organisation has put a set of agreements in place to boost team productivity, collaboration should flow. However, protocols can suffer from an initial flurry of excitement and action, and then fade into the background as we fall back into our old habits.

Productive – the final rung of the productive culture ladder is, clearly, where you want to be, with all management and staff having aspirations to be in a truly productive firm. Creating a set of values around productivity and how work gets done in an organisation will help to create a lasting change that is embraced by everyone.

So where is your firm on the ladder? Do you work in a culture that amplifies your productivity, or kills it with a death of 1000 cuts?

Dermot Crowley is a productivity thought leader, author, speaker and trainer. He works with leaders, executives and professionals in many of Australia’s leading organisations, helping to boost the productivity of their people and teams. Dermot is the author of Smart Work. For more information, visit www.dermotcrowley.com.au or email dermot.crowley@adapttraining.com.au.