Slaughter makes a few key points. For example, he notes why doing things differently is frightening. “Change is scary because it requires that we look at ourselves frankly, and recognize that what we are doing might not be right.”

The interviewer Matt McNairy also asked, “How do you see corporate America evolving in the last ten years?” Slaughter’s answer, however, may surprise you. He doesn’t see evolution so much as revolution. Watch the clip to learn more.

Long before the web took off, we created standardized forms and duplicated them through traditional printing, mimeograph, photocopy or other methods. When computers became powerful enough to support rudimentary desktop publishing, the form became a file that you could print and distribute by hand.

You could even send the form around by email, although there was no guarantee the recipient would have the software to complete the form electronically and return it to you over the Internet.

But about fifteen years ago, that all started to change. The web emerged as a two-way medium. Not only could you browse web pages, but you could enter data into web forms. Anybody who has ever completed a Google search, keyed in a credit card number, or checked the status of  package online has used a a web form. Web forms are ubiquitous.

So today, when over two thirds of all people are online and virtually all Americans use the Internet daily, it’s shocking that people still create PDF or Word document forms that they expect you to download, print out, and scan or mail in. How could individuals possibly advocate this level of inefficiency?

There are only two answers.  The first is that we have become so accustomed to poor systems that we neglect to include the apology. We should be saying “Our legal department has not yet approved online signatures, so we need a scanned copy.” Or, “Our IT team is backed up and has not yet made a webform for this, so just write your responses in an email or modify the Word doc and send it back to me.”

The second possible answer, however, is far more profound. I believe that millions of Internet users have not yet made the paradigm shift to understand the capacity of the web. They still see the Internet as a form of somewhat interactive television, where there are more channels and more controls. They don’t yet realize that everyone controls the productivity of the web.

I find this to be the case when people ask questions they could easily answer via Google, or stumble over logistical problems that are instantly resolved by making some information available on the web. I meet business owners that dismiss the need to be listed with online mapping services, but actually use these mapping services as their personal, portable atlas.

If you’re part of the first group that knows you should be using online forms, don’t forget the apology. Or head over to a company that provides an online form builder and solve the problem yourself.

But if you’re part of the second group, it’s time to admit that you’re clueless. Open your mind to the possibilities of technology. These tools make business faster, relationships more sustainable and have the power to simplify communication.

Only, however, if we change our perspective.

That’s the gist of a recent study highlighted in Business Insider. The piece explains:

In the modern workplace, does cursing affect how your co-workers view you and if yes, is it a bad or good thing? What about words that are meant to take the place of actual swearing, such as “WTF” or “B.S.”?

Researchers at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. found in a study that swearing actually helped co-workers build relationships with one another and enabled them to express their feelings.

Here at The Methodology Blog, we’ve covered the topic of workplace jargon as well as the issue of dealing with sarcastic employees. But the question of foul language takes the prize. Why should it be beneficial to use uncivil language at the office?

The answer is that work should not be so stressful that we feel the need to use profanity. That’s not the good kind of stress. Instead, the desire to throw out angry epithets proves that too much is going wrong at work.

Science has shown that in the case of injury, swearing reduces pain.  The same mechanism should not be at work in the office. If we’re here to be more productive and more efficient, we need to find ways to empower and support each other rather than yell and curse. Uncontrolled emotions have no place in routine business.

Or, you might blame the trainer—or perhaps the trainee.

But whatever the cause of the frustration, everyone can agree that one of the most significant impact on employee productivity is the time required for these sessions. If you’re out of commission for a few hours or even an entire week, it can be tough to get caught up when you return.

One solution to this problem is microtraining. This is simply giving quick pieces of advice or simple tactics that only take a few minutes to explain. In a recent post, 1st Class Solutions explains:

Organizations would benefit by creating a system to teach those little “tips and tricks” to employees. The training could be in the form of JITT (just in time training) modules that take seconds to read. Or, it could be part of a blended learning approach and included in an informal training 5 minute chat session that is scheduled on a regular basis. The purpose being to give learners a small chunk of information that they take back to their desk and apply immediately.

Supplement the learning with a job aid which could be referenced as a quick resource to help keep it at hand and used.

Training doesn’t always have to be a major undertaking. Sometimes the little things can make a tremendous difference!

Here at Slaughter Development, we’ve been trying our own form of microtraining on Twitter. Check out “Today’s Productivity Tip” each morning at 9:00AM Eastern. We hope our quick tips and tricks help you to improve productivity in your office.

In a recent guest post for an Indianapolis web design firm, Robby Slaughter explained some of the key steps:

Ensure You Have a CMS

Hiring a web design company is only one step of the process.  Once you have a new custom website designed that meets your needs, you still have to maintain it.

One of the benefits of working with a web design firm like Watershawl is their use of a CMS, or content management system, to build your website. A CMS is a software application that lets you edit most of the text and  some of the imagery and layout in your site using point-and-click tools.

WordPress, which is the CMS I’m using to write this post, is a popular and effective product in this category. I don’t have to worry about coding or technical details in order to add content to the site. I just login and type.

Get Training on Your CMS

At first, it may seem like you don’t need training to use a tool like WordPress. It’s similar to a word processor. There’s a box you can type into, and there are buttons at the top that you can use to change formatting or insert pictures.

However, just like a word processor, you don’t know what you don’t know. There are some incredible features inside every CMS and without training, you probably won’t find out about them.

Schedule Time To Maintain Your Site

If you plan to write a new blog post once a week, put an hour aside on your calendar and make an appointment with yourself. Or better yet, reserve a day on your calendar to write blog posts for the next two months. Then use, the scheduling feature of your CMS to parcel the blog posts out over time.

Don’t know how to schedule posts? Talk to your website design company.

Create a Guest Login

This is an incredible productivity secret that will save you time. If you want to have others post on your blog, create a guest account for them. That way, you don’t have to ask them to send their post by email, copy and paste it into WordPress, and deal with formatting issues. Instead, you’ll find out that there’s a new post ready to be reviewed. What could be easier?

In short, you can actually be more efficient when maintaining your website. Talk to your website design company about your CMS. And if you don’t have one, considering checking with your web design firm about moving to a platform like WordPress.

These are some of the many ways to increase productivity when building and maintaining a website. For more, talk to the folks at Watershawl.

Here’s a simple example. How many times have you called someone, and they’ve answered with just one word:

“Hello?”

This is just about the worst possible thing you can do when answering the phone. It shows no interest in the conversation and forces the caller to take charge.

Instead, you can actually increase productivity by considering three distinct factors when answering:

1. The type of line are you answering — direct line, company line, or cellphone
2. The relationship you have with the caller — personal, professional or none
3. Whether or not the call was scheduled

Slaughter’s piece also explains how to ensure that the phone doesn’t interrupt you while still providing good service. He continues:

There are other ways to increase productivity on the phone as well. One of the most powerful is the “quick answer.”

If someone calls in and you’re focused on an urgent task or talking to someone else in person, it can be tempting to let the message go to voicemail. But then, you have to listen to the voicemail and try to return the call later. That’s no way to increase productivity!

Instead, try this: “Jack, Emily here. Hey, I’m in the middle of something. Can I call you back in ten minutes?”

More than likely, the caller will accept this suggestion. They save the time of leaving a voicemail and you save the time of listening to the voicemail.

Plus, the caller can increase productivity by planning to be available in ten minutes. Everyone wins!

The “quick answer” strategy works for any time frame, not just ten minutes. The person answering the phone could have suggested a time to call back, such as 11:00AM.

Plus, they don’t actually have to be “in the middle of something.” The telephone is a source of interruption every time it rings. But if you decide to answer quickly, you can control the phone—instead of it controlling you.

For more information about business telephone systems, check out Fathom Voice. And for more techniques to improve employee productivity, talk to us here at Slaughter Development!

In this post, you are going to learn proven techniques that you can immediately put to use.

I am going to show you exactly how you can:

1. Decrease your IQ by 10 points while working
2. Make sure you won’t accomplish anything
3. Increase your stress levels by at least 100% or more
4. Get completely overwhelmed

If you learn the techniques presented in this post, you will:

1. Become completely insignificant
2. Earn less money
3. Repel successful and capable people
4. Be slave to the random whims of others
5. Get fired from your job or drive your business to the ground

Sounds good? Let’s get started!

Consider reading Jiri Novotny’s complete post for details. However, here are the highlights of how you can do the opposite of improving productivity at work:

• Check email 50 times a day to prevent focus
• Clutter your desk with piles of paper for constant anxiety
• Sit in a crappy chair for physical fatigue and tiredness
• Multi-task to decrease your IQ by 10 points
• Get as many notifications as possible for constant distraction
• Be interrupted as often as possible to avoid getting in the flow
• Build the longest to-do list in the known universe for guaranteed stress

Of course, the author of this post is joking. If you want to improve productivity, you should reverse all of these statements and then put them into practice.

In fact, we’ve talked about most of these issues here on The Methodology Blog. We’ve given tons of email productivity advice, and we’ve reviewed the impact of a messy desk at work. Naturally, we’ve reported on dealing with interruptions at work and the myth of multitasking.

The most important message is that employee productivity is about choices. It’s a question of what we decide to do and what we decide not to do at work.

What choices are you making so you can get more done?

Long term memory of layout and consistent conventions are crucial to us rapidly finding the information we need. I was rudely reminded of this yesterday when I tried to find my hotel room. My room is 2125 and I was confronted with this sign:

Just in case you are struggling to read it, this is what it says:

First Floor

Bedrooms 2102-2113 →

Bedrooms 2132-2137

← Bedrooms 2131-2120

Bedrooms 2138-2142

Bedrooms 2119-2114

Now I eventually worked out that they had reversed the order of the numbers on some of the lines (including the one with my room on it). It had taken me 10-20 seconds to figure out what was going on (it was the end of a long day), probably ten times longer than it would if they had stuck with convention and been consistent. The impact of illogical and inconsistent layout is felt by us dozens of times a day. The good news is that we can train users of our products (in my case report and dashboards) to “know” where their information is by using a very consistent physical layout.

It is this strong, long-term memory for layout that humans possess which is the root of the very powerful “memory palace” techniques you may have heard about. It’s the technique that Hannibal Lecter uses in Robert Harris’s book Hannibal. There’s also a fantastic book about Matteo Ricci, a Christian missionary in China in 1577, who wowed the Chinese aristocracy by training their sons to use this technique. (The book is called The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci and is by Jonathan Spence).

So it is worth considering that every time you layout information (or physical items), you may be helping the user jump straight to the right item, effortlessly, or causing them to stop, scratch their head and wonder what is going on.

Bernie Smith has helped his clients deliver surprising levels of improvement across a wide range of industries over the past 15 years. His mission is to help clients with a repeatable, practical and jargon-free method for generating insightful and clear KPIs and management reports. He understands that most people don’t get excited by KPIs, but believes it’s a curable condition.You can find out more about KPIs on his website www.madetomeasureKPIs.com

Here’s what may be the most amazing highlight. It’s easy to see how this applies to employee productivity:

Only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ. 75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism level, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.

Shawn Achor, the speaker, also discusses studies that are specifically tied to employee productivity:

Our brain works in the opposite order. If we can raise our level of positivity in the present, then our brain experiences a “happiness advantage.” Which means our brain at positive, performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral, or stressed. Our intelligence rises, our creativity rises, our energy level rises. In fact, every single business outcome improves. Our brain at positive is 31% more productive than our brain at negative, neutral or stressed. We are 37% better at sales. Doctors are 19% faster, more accurate at coming up with a correct diagnosis when positive versus negative, neutral, or stressed.

Here on The Methodology Blog, we’ve devoted quite a few posts to connecting employee productivity and happiness.  Even if you’re a coffee shop barista, you can become engaged in the complexity of your work.  The same goes if you walk on a tightrope over a 3,000 foot drop without a safety line: being satisfied at work makes the all difference.

Company leaders want to increase employee productivity. But the question is, what will make workers want to achieve more and do so with increased efficiency? It’s time we recognize the secret to great work is engagement. That’s what makes the difference between people who just pass time at their desk and the truly committed employees. Productivity arises from satisfaction. Choose to be happy, grateful, and connected at work.

Take a look at this photo, which an unidentified source caught in the wild:

The note on the top is probably intended to have a positive impact on employee productivity. But even if you read it by itself, the language is pretty demoralizing.

First, it begins with an edict: “Our office hours start at 8:30 AM.”

We know that micromanaging employees has a tremendously negative impact on morale. Dictating that they must be there by a certain time isn’t going to garner much respect.

But then, the poster gets even worse. It continues by listing other times at which presumably workers tend to stumble in.

Finally, the upper notice includes a signature from “your longest serving partner.” That’s like saying, “I’m the only productive employee around here, and you should listen to me because I’ve been here for ages.”

Workplace productivity does benefit from experience, but the second posting doesn’t show much judgment. Instead, it’s a sarcastic retort. Not only does it mock the original, but it even ends with “your humble servant.” Perhaps the prankster is trying to express that he feels more like a slave than a colleague.

We’ve known for a long time that working overtime is counterproductive.  But what this image demonstrates is one of the most obvious signs of a dangerously unhealthy workplace.

Any time people crack sarcastic jokes at the office, you can be sure they are just trying to find ways to relieve tension.   But why is the office stressful in the first place? And we’re not talking about the kind of workplace stress that’s beneficial. Instead, a battle of snarky signs ought to tell us that we need to seriously assess our organizational culture.

Everyone wants to improve employee productivity. But plastering your opinions to the wall using a nasty tone is no way to drive lasting change.

Instead, we need to address the structure of work. We need to be willing to question assumptions and redesign basic patterns. We must be ready to hear the thoughts of each and every employee. Productivity can be dramatically increased, but only if the people doing the work are part of the process.