Last week, an article referred to managers driving productivity. Is it possible, though, to drive productivity?

The dictionary defines productivity as “the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.”

I’ve seen plenty of well-intentioned managers try to increase productivity. Their methods included:

• Imposing new processes.
• Buying tools that will apparently make the job easier.
• Pushing the people to work harder or longer.

Unfortunately, none of these things made the people more productive. Almost always, the opposite happens. Worse yet, almost always, their attempts only frustrated the people they intended to help.

Rather than trying to drive productivity, let the team take responsibility for improving productivity.

After all, they know the job best, including what’s keeping them from closing the gap between input (effort) and the outcomes.

You’ve got this.