“Productivity vs efficiency; which do you think is more important?“
A colleague asked me this the other day and I had to catch myself, because my initial response was:
“Aren’t they the same thing?“
That’s the problem – the words have become so overused and confused that they are almost taken to mean the exact same thing in casual conversation. There are, however, key differences between the two that you should know in order to correctly analyze the performance of something.
Simply put, productivity measures output over time whereas efficiency measures input versus output. Together they can tell you how quickly something is completed, the resources it takes to get there, and (through analysis) whether the whole thing is worth your investment.
There are also dangers associated with these metrics. For example, I tried to spend an hour every night working on one of many projects. Monday was playing guitar, Tuesday was physical drawing, Wednesday game development, Thursday digital drawing, Friday playing piano, and the weekend dealer’s choice.
Not only did I give up within a week and a half, but I couldn’t muster the motivation to do any work on any of my projects for weeks following. It doesn’t matter if you’re using the best productivity apps around; when you’re using productivity and efficiency as your goal, rather than the method to reach it, something will inevitably break underneath you.
Some workflow apps you might be using to help manage your processes require constant attention – reporting, updating, or having to contact other colleagues to get them to complete their section of the workflow.
These are interruptions, and according to Professor Gloria Marks from the University of California, with each interruption, there is an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds wasted to get back to the task.
Other workflows experience inefficiencies simply because your current processes take too long. Full stop.
The more time things take, the more work you have to do.
In this article, we’ll guide you through a series of tools which can help you create workflows, follow workflows, and automate workflows.
Joseph Juran, the Architect of Quality, paved the way for the active pursuit of quality in Business with the Juran Trilogy.
The Juran Trilogy redefined quality management; reducing chronic defects and the costs associated below a 20% industry expectation.
The Juran Trilogy has been shown to give benefits across multiple parameters, increasing productivity, reducing cycle-times, improving human safety, and reducing product failure rates – with a 80% reduction in some cases.
For us as Process Street, the Juran Trilogy is one of our favorite tools for improving business operations. It’s a straightforward methodology that brings results.
Learn how to apply the Juran Trilogy for your business, and improve the quality of operations. Click on the relevant subheader below to jump to your section of choice, alternatively scroll down to read all we have to say:
I lost $45,000 because I didn’t have a statement of work in place.
What makes it worse (or perhaps better?!) is that it wasn’t even my money.
It was my previous employer’s.
I was managing a website build for a big client and was under huge pressure to meet a tight deadline. So, as many do, I decided to start the project before the client signed the Statement of Work (SoW).
This was a big, expensive, mistake to make.
It cost an additional $45,000 to re-work parts of the build that the client had verbally approved, but hadn’t legally signed off.
Ouch.
(Despite what you might think, this isn’t the reason I don’t work there anymore!)
According to research, 37% of projects fail due to a lack of defined and approved project goals and objectives, which come with a Statement of Work (SoW). This causes around 80% of organizations to spend at least half their time on expensive rework.
“Not using a Statement of Work – SOW during the project initiation is a major cause of project failure” – 4PM, Statement of Work – SOW
But what is a Statement of Work (SoW) and how do you create one?
All will be revealed in this Process Street post, as we go through:
An employee feedback loop can be a great tool if you’re trying to improve the quality of your products or boost the satisfaction of your employees.
There are numerous benefits to gathering and utilizing feedback but there are also several key things to remember that will help you make your feedback loops as effective as possible.
We will look at the different types of feedback loops, how they can positively impact businesses, and the best practices for making them work the first time, every time.
According to ITSMA and Vision Edge Marketing, 74% of marketers don’t keep track of their efforts. This is problematic as it means marketing teams aren’t able to report on how their efforts impact the business as a whole.
At Process Street, we make sure our marketing operations are documented, tracked, and easy to understand, so we can stay on top of our marketing OKRs and ensure they align with top-level company goals. To do this, we utilize Process Street‘s saved view feature.
The saved view gives a summary of workflow data. You can customize these views and present the data to suit your needs. For our marketing team, this means work is tracked and can be easily correlated with internal OKRs. Saved views have helped our marketers gather data, detect patterns, and keep their work on track.
Let’s get straight to the point – you’re probably searching for a policy and procedure template you can use.
Moreover, if you want an actionable policy and procedure template, you can find two hand-crafted examples below. One is a blueprint you can use to build your own, and the other is a filled-out example of the first, using a fictional company called Brightstar Marketing.
In fact, both can be easily edited and updated by you inside Process Street.
Whether starting a business or trying to improve an existing one, you have to understand how things will get done. Writing standard operating procedures can seem complicated on the surface, but with some thought, the process can be easy.
Start by answering the following questions: What tasks do you need to do? Who needs to do them? What are the best ways to approach these tasks?
This will be your first step toward systemizing your business. Consequently, creating processes and workflows will define how your day-to-day activities function.
You’ve got a ton of work to do right now. Your to-do list is an unstructured mess of action items, and you’ve only got a faint idea how to prioritize tasks.
Luckily, there are a few (almost automatic) ways to quickly get your to-do list prioritized without much effort. In fact, you can apply one of these methods within 5 minutes and know exactly what to do next. There have been a number of methods over the years, and all have their own quirks and considerations. Which is right for you?
In previous chapters of my task management guide, I’ve taken you all the way through from writing, organizing, and planning your to-do list. Check those out if you haven’t already.
Now, I’m going to take you through a few of the ways I prioritize my tasks as a content writer for Process Street.
Amy Dawson is a freelance copywriter specializing in content creation and PR strategies. With a background in recruitment, Amy has spent many years writing about how to make the most of your job hunt, from finding out where to search for your dream job, to preparing for your interview and understanding what to expect from your employer.
For many years, businesses have seen better sales & business performance as a result of dedicated departmental operations managers: Sales operations, marketing operations, customer operations, systems operations, they all work to improve the operational efficiency of their teams.
However, this kind of vertical organization can make it difficult to figure out how sales, marketing and customer success can work together optimally.
Siloing operational knowledge like this often leads to inefficiencies and reduced performance.
That’s where the role of revenue operations (also referred to as RevOps) comes in: Their goal is to increase efficiencies and ensure that each strand is working together harmoniously.
