By Sean Clouden
ob productivity is a concern of every executive, manager and employee. Every employee produces a product for which he is paid, and increasing productivity means increasing the volume or quality of the products produced. Now, a product is defined as something valuable that has exchange value outside of the activity (is worth money, for example). Value outside the activity is a key phrase and it means just that: is the thing produced valuable to someone else?
Will anyone give you money or goodwill for it? If no, it's not a product.
The concept of producing a product is brutally simple yet commonly overlooked or misunderstood. In the course of training thousands of people on our programs, we've found that very few people actually understand this simple fact: they are not paid for their time, their presence at the office, their title or anything else except for producing a product.
What is the product of any job? It is the thing produced that has value outside the activity. The product of a salesperson is a product or service honestly sold at a viable price to a new or existing client. The product of a customer service representative is a satisfied, loyal customer who has no complaints. The product of a janitor is clean premises. The product of a CEO is a viable, expanding organization.
Every organization and post should have clearly defined products.
What is the product of your organization? What does it ultimately produce that is valuable to people outside of it? Does every post in your organization have a clearly defined product for which money is paid?
Here's your exercise for today:
Go to the employees giving you the most trouble and ask them what they produce. You are guaranteed to receive some wild answers.
Then take a look at some of the various posts in your organization and ask, What does this post produce that contributes to the overall product of this organization? If the post doesn't pass that simple test, it needs to be restructured.
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