My
response to an anonymous article on productivity –
03/10/2007
Very warm and fuzzy
article - makes us ambitionless employees feel nicely vindicated!
Personally, I believe that if you love what you
are doing, you will do it well and you will do with the speed necessary for it
to be done and it will not cause you stress. The fact of the matter is that the
great majority of the human race lacks true ambition, don't know what they want
from life (except the superficial dressings), they hate their jobs but continue
to do it for the dressings, lack integrity and conscience, climb the corporate
ladder the wrong way for all the wrong reasons and then die of stress.
Really, how many of us become engineers because we
want to invent a new kind of combustion engine, how many of us become doctors
because we want to invent a cure for cancer? I am not disparaging these
professions - they are among the noblest. The problem is that we always want to
'become' something in our lives; we don’t want to 'do' something
with our lives. There is a very big difference. The guys who want to do
something are the guys with the fire in the belly and they never die of stress.
If they do, they do that too happily. Your stress is not caused by the need for
productivity - don't flatter and fool yourself - it's caused by your hatred for
what you are doing. Yeah? You protest? Ask yourself what'd be the first thing
you'd do if you won the lottery? Yes, of course! You'd quit your job! Welcome!
Join the club! This club has 99.99infinity% of your species!
But having worked with
organizations of these countries for a fairly long time (not that I have
anything against them) but I really question this - French people, even
though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or
British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their
productivity been driven up by 20%. First of all, who measured this? Where
are these figures from? People just dish out numbers - these days statistics have
just become somebody's personal opinion in figures!
The French reduced their
workweek to 35 hours to reduce their employment problems. They had no other
answer to the protests that were becoming rampant. That is the socialist method
of spreading the good stuff around. The Germans unions now want more and more
vacation time and even in their own country people are beginning to resent this
new trend. Productivity going up? Bull! The majority of the world's patents are
still filed here in this country; 28% is filed by Japan, another country where
the government literally has to beg people to take time off.
Productivity is a
co-relation of time too. Good productivity means doing things superlatively but
in a specific period of time. Just taking a longer time, with 350 meetings, and
450 Powerpoint presentations and 500 videoconferences and then turning out a
good quality product does not!
THE
AUTHOR OF THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS UNKNOWN
=========================================================
It's been 18 years since
I (the original author of this) joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for
them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years
to be finalized, even if the idea is simple as well as brilliant. It's a rule.
Globalize processes have
caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate
results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results.
This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the
other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold multiple numbers of quality meetings
and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.
Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the
size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million
inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has
500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania,
Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo also
supplies to NASA.
The first time I was in
Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was
September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he
would park far away from the entrance. 2000 employees drive their car to work).
The first day, I didn't say anything, the same was true for the second and
third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've
noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the
lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to
walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the
door. Don't you think?" Imagine my face.
Nowadays, there's a
movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should
eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the
family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the
spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the
basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.
Basically, the movement
questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by
globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life
status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the
"quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per
week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established
28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%.
This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and
the "do it now!".
This no-rush attitude
doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working
and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention
to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free
and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the
"global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential
values, the simplicity of living.
It stands for a less
coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans
enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how
companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase
productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the
essence of spirit.
In the movie, Scent of a
Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies,
"I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al
responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a
tango.
Many of us live our
lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack
or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the
future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly
exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less.
The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live
each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while
you're busy making other plans".
Congratulations for
reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in
the middle so as not to waste time in this globalize world.