Streamline Training & Documentation: Work Smart

Monday, August 21, 2006

Work Smart

Especially in the case of knowledge and service workers, it's essential to have a concrete approach to getting as much as possible produced in a given amount of time. There are five steps involved in identifying ways of working smarter:

Define the task. Ask: Does this work need to be done?

Concentrate on the task. Ask: How exactly can we add value by doing this?

Define performance. Ask: What are relevant quantitative and qualitative measures of what we are accomplishing?

Get advice from any and all knowledgeable employees about how to improve the process and the outcome.

Make learning continuous. Use capable training specialists to design and guide training efforts (a good portion of which will be based on on-the-job coaching). Ask the best performers to become teachers for the rest.

Managers play an important facilitating role in all of these steps. In addition, they serve as links between their own units and the rest of the organization. This bridging of organizational gaps is a powerful way of enabling employees to work smarter by coordinating better with co-workers organization-wide.

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Labels: Management practices, Productivity

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