The Cranky Middle Manager Show #092 (MP3 12.6MB 36:32Min)

To Listen In Your Browser, Click The Icon Below

To Download For Later, Right Click Here

Back in Episode 87, we spoke to Joel Barker, and he talked about someone we needed to speak to- Dr. Tor Dahl. He put him up there with Demming and Drucker. Who could resist THAT conversation? So here we are. At the end of the show, Tor offers his white paper on productivity to anyone who drops me a line and asks for it. How cool is that?

Warning, this show has lots of heavy numbers but it’s worth the work.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to episode 92. This is not one of those light, breezy shows, so be prepared to put some work in but it’ll be worth it, I promise. Don’t forget to sign up for the Cranky Middle Manager Newsletter…just email me and put the world Subscribe in the subject line.

1:38 Since the subject today is productivity (however you pronounce it) the show is dedicated to the Egyptian Imam Suyuti. Not only was he one of the most prolific writers in history, but he makes a good point. People who write about religion and people who write about business have much in common:

• The truth hasn’t changed much since Day 1, they just put a fresh spin on it
• They get way more credit than they deserve
• Their readers pretty much pick and choose the parts they listen to and which parts they’ll ignore.

3:26 The quote of the week is from Charles Caleb Colton: Productivity comes from the hardest times…. if you live long enough to enjoy it.

4:15 Welcome Tor Dahl (with apologies for the tinniness of the sound- the bigger the guest the more likely Skype will act up). We start by defining the terms…what is productivity and how do we measure it? Productivity is Output divided by Input. Write it down Wayne.
10:15 Is increased productivity good for the worker or just for the boss. How much work can you squeeze out of an already dry stone? Turns out Marx was wrong…you not only OWN the means of production, you ARE the means of production.

13:00 Why are we so fascinated with productivity? The only way to create new wealth is through increased productivity. China is up 11.1% and their purchasing power will surpass the US in 10 years. Please note, the editing software got glitchy.. I’m really not trying to talk over Dr. Dahl

15:15 Here’s where things get interesting… and all you Six Sigmas Blackbelts and TQM managers listen up: Productivity was down to less than 1% until recently. Why? Because we became concerned about quality. Quality is about reducing variations, but variations are what cause increases in productivity. Neat paradox huh?

18:19 The principles of productivity: Screen what nobody should be doing, figure out what somebody should do but not you, and finally what you should be doing. THEN figure out how to do it more efficiently. You’ll free up 2/3 of your resources.

News Flash: don’t fire people who’ve helped you free up those resources- reinvest in them.

22:19 Tor gives us a case study of a company that almost went out of business and in three years turned into a 300/1 return on investment.

23:00 We spend almost a day a week in wasted time: bad meetings, unnecessary rework and waiting- lots of waiting. Outsourcing does not necessarily mean you lose your job but it’s a balancing act.

27:00 You have to identify key logs in the log jam… once you identify the log jam everyone will tell you when you have it….the team knows where the strengths and weaknesses are. There are 23 logs, it seems.

31:00 After all that science and economics, this is the part of the story you have to hear. the 40 most productive people in the world got together in England to find out why they were so productive… and the results are surprising, but no surprise at all.

Tor’s Resources

Most of Tor’s papers are by his own admission unreadable, but there’s one paper (even I understood it) that you can get by emailing me and asking for it.

There’s his newsletter…

Thanks gang…. as always, don’t let the weasels get you down.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 9:49 pm and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.