A term for employees who simply show up to work as if it’s their only obligation, business bosses are increasingly finding that their staff come to work only to spend their days getting little to nothing done, slowing down important projects and negatively impacting on the staff forced to share their workload. If this sounds like your business, how can you boost your employee’s productivity and avoid this vicious cycle?

The answer? Natural light.

It sounds crazy, but when it comes to implementing changes for a positive office environment, many have argued for the health benefits from natural light, particularly sunshine. Sunshine is very important for well-being because of the UV rays it provides. These help the human body to produce vitamin D, dubbed ‘the sunshine vitamin’ by health experts. Vitamin D has been hailed as an effective treatment for allergies, back pain, tension headaches and namely, depression.

Studies have proven the benefits of natural light for workplace productivity.  In 2008, a study of 1,000 city workers by the Federation for Small Businesses found that 22% of workers got less than 20 minutes of sunshine a day. As a result, two-thirds of participants suffered with depression and four out of five blamed their lack of motivation on their sunless working environments.

So what can you do? Well, rather than cashing out on expensive light boxes, artificial sunshine ceilings or vitamin supplements on tap, the installation of glass skylights is a worthwhile investment. If the ceiling above an employee’s head is restricting their vitamin D intake and so their capacity to work, the common sense solution is to remove the obstacle. Alternatively a roof window is a brilliant solution and will not only bathe office space in a glow of natural light but will boost the potential and welfare of all of those beneath it.

Sunsquare is one of the UK’s leading providers of high-specification skylights and roof windows. Designed to achieve maximum daylight with minimal framework, our skylights can be fitted to any surface on any home. For more information please visit the website.

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.

…Iiconic six sigma companies in the United States, such as Motorola and GE, have struggled in recent years to be innovation leaders. 3M, which invested heavily in continuous improvement, had to loosen its sigma methodology in order to increase the flow of innovation. As innovation thinker Vijay Govindarajan says, “The more you hardwire a company on total quality management, [the more] it is going to hurt breakthrough innovation. The mindset that is needed, the capabilities that are needed, the metrics that are needed, the whole culture that is needed for discontinuous innovation, are fundamentally different.”

Here at Slaughter Development, we’re no stranger to the problems with six sigma. We’ve reviewed the issues with Lean management as well. That’s not to say that these approaches are entirely bad. Rather, that it is the thinking and questioning done by stakeholders which makes the different. The copyrighted process improvement technique is not what’s important. It’s the people that matter.

In fact, we covered this over three years ago in a piece called Slaves to Methodology:

[Recall] a familiar saying: there are no silver bullets. This expression reminds us not to put too much stock in comprehensive methodologies. However, the bullets are not without value. Peter Drucker says it best: Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable. The benefit of a methodology is not in adhering to the practice, but in being methodical.

Harvard Business Review is right: continuous improvement is important, but not because we stick to officially approved methods. Rather, we must engender a mindset of always improving, always questioning, always thinking of better ways. Only when individual stakeholders are part of the process will true continuous improvement be at the center of the organization.

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