Fred Nickols wrote:
> Replying to Steven Randall in LO30231 --
>
> >I have not heard a good suggestion as to what could possibly be the basis
> >for true continuous improvement in work. It needs to be something that is
> >always present in experience, which excludes strategies and relationships
> >and skills. What candidates that are always present could be useful?
> >With this question I hope to start a real inquiry.
>
> I think the primary basis for "true continuous improvement in work" is
> good old economy of effort -- coupled, of course, with quality of product
> or outcome. Economy of effort addresses management's desire to increase
> productivity and it also addresses the workers' desire to stop wasting
> their time and effort. The trick, as I have come to believe, is finding
> ways of improving the economy of effort that doesn't simply boil down to
> management finding ways of getting rid of workers. What I've always found
> is that the people doing the work know better than anyone else where and
> how they're wasting their time or doing stupid things or doing things that
> don't need to be done at all.
Ok, if we take 'economy of effort' as the basis for continuous
improvement, how do we define and recognize this experientially no matter
what the task? And what if no specific task is being done at the
moment--what if we're deciding what task to do next? What can be the
experiential 'basis' for decision or turning toward 'greater economy'?
This is the kind of thing I find sorely lacking in the literature, and in
practice.
Steve Randall, Ph.D.
Results in No Time - email: fathertime@manage-time.com
Time Management Supersite: http://www.manage-time.com
Includes complete time management courses
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Finding the peaceful eye at the center of our whirlwind of activity
"I agree that we should stop the superficial firefighting of the temporal
problems in organizations, and engage instead in deeper explorations and
reconceptualizations of the meaning of time, work, and the workplace."
--Dr. Babis Mainemelis, Department of Organisational Behaviour, London
Business School
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