To succeed in the years to come, we need to rethink business strategy. Many organizations have reworked processes and systems to the limit. It seems that all too often human factors are only considered when competitive pressures, resistance to major change, low productivity, absenteeism and other attitudinal symptoms have already taken hold and are notably impacting the bottom line. Yet optimism and employee mindset are critical to long-term organizational success.
Incumbent on business leaders is the need to ensure teams deliver on their promises. But leaders cannot deliver the results alone. Teams are needed to deliver consistently. In order for teams to deliver they must collaborate and work well together to be truly productive! Are your teams delivering all they can?
Recent surveys indicate the average employee brings only 5 to 10% of his/her capacity to work. What is your organization missing out on? What is the effect on your bottom line?
Ample evidence confirms the present system is not functioning optimally. Business as usual is not likely to deliver extraordinary and positive results with any regularity. Television and front pages of the globe’s news and business journals report corruption and missed forecasts, downsizing, mergers, fraud, failed businesses and layoffs — all indicators of the system’s malfunction. The current situation is not sustainable.
Our ever-changing business world requires a new working model to thrive.
We need a more effective way to create and maintain great organizations able to operate at optimum productivity, to retain and grow top people and to flourish in our dynamic multi-faceted world. Peaceful Productivity is the solution.
The time is NOW. This is a Call to Action!
P e a c e f u l Productivity®
a Business Success Strategy to Unleash Motivation for Inspired Performance, Extraordinary Results and Peace of Mind
I. The Challenge
II. Current Situation & Trends – Why NOW?
III. Strategy to Unleash Motivation for Inspired Performance, Extraordinary Results and Peace of Mind
IV. The Three Building Blocks of P e a c e f u l Productivity®
V. Benefits & Return on Investment (ROI)
VI. Business Model for Success – peace @work
VII. Summary and Call to Action
I. The Challenge
As a leader you are in a privileged position to inspire and activate people to commit themselves to a common context. You are expected to stand up as a role model for others to follow. Clarity of vision, choice of personal strategies, confidence in decision-making and follow-through nurture the trust people have in you. Personal power and mastery are required to meet these important challenges. Consistency, commitment and concentrated focus are essential.
Yet change is everywhere. It is hitting us from every angle — social change, financial change, legislative change, political change, and above all technological change. This leaves most of us in a state of recurring uncertainty. How can an individual leader maintain balance in such a sea of change? Are you prepared for the challenge? Will your current management philosophy thrive in tomorrow’s climate? And how can you do all of this with ease, grace and a sense of inner peace?
“The most sought-after treasure in the world — even more than wealth and power — is peace of mind,” Salzman1 writes. “This state of peace is something that is naturally ours.” So why do so many of us seek what is already ours? “People take the small, mechanical aspect of their mind to be the real mind when it is just a small part of the infinite space of the naturally peaceful mind.”
(1 Bertram W. Salzman, academy-award winning director and author)
II. Current Situation & Trends - Why NOW?
Today’s fast-paced ever-changing business environment is stretching resources ever thinner. More and more people are suffering from burn out and stress related diseases. Absenteeism, heart attack, stroke, depression and diminished concentration are on the rise.
These all too common causes of stress and consequent employee “check outs” are prevalent in many workplaces…
organizational change
poor communication
lack of training
inadequate supervision
monotonous work
lack of promotion prospects
bullying & harassment
unclear roles
excessive hours
conflict of work and home demands
The resulting loss of productivity is significant. This enormous loss within organizations can be measured in terms of:
increasing client complaints
more accidents
increased staff turnover
lost sales / lost customers
poor morale & absenteeism
deteriorating product quality
and direct costs…
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing business leaders today is management of the structure of costs. Human resource costs are significant, not only in terms of salaries and social charges but also in “hidden” costs.
Certain direct and indirect costs can totally escape usual accounting practices. Absenteeism is a case in point, where direct costs of salaries and social benefits and indirect costs relative to overtime and replacement are not attributed. In the category “absenteeism” alone, sums are considerable. Industry analysts estimate the annual costs to be billion in the United States and billion in Canada, or 000 a year per capita.
The message is clear. If it’s a crisis in the business world, then clearly stress at work does not end at the office. As noted by Harvard Business Review, “When an executive experiences worry, tension, fear, doubt or stress intensely, he is not able to shake these feelings when he gets home, and they render him psychologically unavailable for a rich private life.
We can summarize our findings this way: for an ambitious person, a well functioning professional life is a necessary though not sufficient condition for a well functioning private one. Executives need intense physical activity not further mental strain and fatigue. Managers who are burning out need support from others who can offer psychological sustenance.” ~ Harvard Business Review.
With growing pressures today, many people attempt to balance work/life by dividing time between personal and professional activities. We have all heard, “I leave my ‘personal self’ at home when I go to work.” This creates disengagement and loss of personal power. The resulting productivity drops dramatically. Where the “average” employee brings only 5 – 10% capacity to the workplace, “checking out” is rampant. No wonder businesses are struggling and the number of individuals suffering from stress is rising.
Remarkably, companies such as Xerox Corp. estimate costs .5 million to replace a top executive who dies prematurely from heart disease. Heart disease is often linked to stress. In addition to the negative impact of stress-related issues in management, it is clear that poor management practices also kill productivity.
“Poor management” practices are lowering productivity rates and costing global economies billions, according to Proudfoot Consulting’s international labor productivity study. The study, Managing for Mediocrity2, names the six barriers to optimum productivity—
insufficient planning and control
inadequate supervision
ineffective communication
poor working morale
inappropriately qualified workforce
IT-related issues
(2 “New study finds poor management practices cost economies billions.” Compiled by Lauren Nypaver, Proudfoot Consulting, UK)
So what are the implications? Peace of mind in the workplace has been eroded by spiraling stress related-issues and poor management practices. It’s time for a catalytic change in the way we engage with others at work! The Way to P e a c e f u l Productivity® is to adopt a Business Success Strategy for peace of mind and extraordinary results.
III. Business Success Strategy to Unleash Motivation for Inspired Performance, Extraordinary Results and Peace of Mind
A healthy life/work balance enriches peace of mind. Starting from a place of inner harmony, we gain the perspective of the “big picture.” Without this holistic viewpoint, we have little chance to recognize our contribution and meaning in the overall organization. We remain isolated and not connected to the whole. Planned results are not guaranteed in this isolated and unbalanced state.
From personal experience, we know we are most productive and motivated when we are doing something we enjoy – producing or creating something meaningful and in alignment with our personal values.
Connecting with others in a consequential way, authentically aligned with our personal values and organization goals, allows us to create and operate at maximum levels. The secret to personal performance lies in the ability to unlock motivation. Motivated employees are able to sustain significant increases in productivity.
What can tomorrow’s business leaders do to increase productivity for both the long and short term and bring more peace and satisfaction to the office? What could you do if you tripled the capacity & productivity of your people? And what if were sustainable? Peaceful Productivity™ offers a viable solution.
P e a c e f u l Productivity® is about engaging individuals and teams around a common goal while supporting peaceful activities and increasing productivity. P e a c e f u l Productivity® works for the betterment of all relationships – the relationship with our inner self, our relationships with other and our relationship with the world we live in.
IV. The Three Building Blocks of P e a c e f u l Productivity®
1. PERSONAL PEACE PLAN
“P e a c e f u l Productivity®” begins with and nourishes our peace of mind – our inner harmony. Attaining peace of mind is the first building block of Peaceful Productivity™. This is the INDIVIDUAL or personal element. This is your Personal Peace Plan.
Philosophers, spiritual leaders and writers over the ages have prescribed a myriad of methods and suggestions for attaining peace of mind. Peace of mind is the integration of one’s true self in harmony with the reality of the outside world – an alignment of personal values with actions – a personal alignment with one’s basic nature.
As philosopher Socrates said, “Know yourself.” Know your values, your goals and your purpose. Clearly define your vision. This is the starting point.
For an organization this Personal Peace Plan becomes a framework within which the team operates. As the environment changes, the Plan provides the basis to make decisions and define appropriate future actions. It is a governance plan within which teams can innovate and act while remaining consistent with the group’s Personal Peace Plan.
Inner peace calms the torrent of thoughts that borage us each moment of each day. Plain and simple, yet rare! We all recognize this peaceful feeling when we are “in the zone” or “in the flow.” With inner peace, we are optimistic. We approach situations in terms of how to find solutions rather than to worry what can go wrong. Self-efficacy rises and productivity improves. P e a c e f u l Productivity® helps more people bring peace of mind to work.
Yet peace of mind seems to be a state we rarely seek at work. I believe this must change. Without peace of mind at work, we risk everything.
“I must first be the change I want to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
2. PURPOSEFUL ACTION – CONNECTING WITH OTHERS
The second element of P e a c e f u l Productivity® is Purposeful Action and Connecting with Others. With your Personal Peace Plan in mind, define an action plan with purpose. This element is CO-ACTIVE. With purposeful action we can transform the workplace into a source of immense satisfaction and fulfillment and at the same time deliver sustainable results. With a spirit of cooperation we are more productive and creative.
Develop a six- to twelve-month plan to deliver your vision and a 100-day action plan to kickstart the process. Both long-term and short-term aspects are essential. Initiating action is important to set the process in motion. And not just any action – P e a c e f u l Productivity® prescribes Action with Purpose, aligned with your Personal Peace Plan.
Not indeed as the product, but as the producing power, the productivity. – Coleridge.
3. COLLABORATING for SUSTAINABLE RESULTS
This third step is manifested by the combination of the first two steps – Collaborating for Sustainable Results. To yield sustainable results, commit to your plan, build your self-confidence, review and modify your action plan as you learn along the way, be committed to consistency in your words and actions and – very important – enjoy the process. Through strong relationship with others, more is possible with less effort and less stress.
Living in and acting from a state of balance and inner peace we become “grounded,” self-confident and consistent. Consistent in that we live according to the same values in all aspects of life – whether at home or work, alone or with friends, family, community or with nature. Integrity-of-self emerges when we operate from this state of balance. And productivity improves because stress is reduced. In this way both the individual and the organization benefit. A strong collaborative partnership is created.
Your reward is enriching work that “fits” your unique talents and skills, which brings increased self-confidence and the ultimate: peace of mind.
P e a c e f u l Productivity® creates a richly rewarding system generating greater peace of mind for individuals while producing planned and sustainable results.
V. Benefits & Return on Investment (ROI)
Raising productivity improves economic performance – a widely accepted fact among businesses, organizations and governments. Again referencing Proudfoot Consulting’s article Managing for Medocrity2, the main causes of reduced productivity are 1) insufficient management planning and control, and 2) inadequate employee supervision. Poor management, defined as a combination of these two barriers to productivity, continues to be the largest single reason for productivity loss.
The evidence is clear. Companies with the highest management scores outperform their peers – in both short-term and long-term financial results. The correlation between good management practices and economic performance is confirmed. People are any organization’s greatest asset. Peaceful Productivity™ shows how to tap into this valuable human resource in a productive and sustainable way.
In Bradford Smart’s “Topgrading” 3, he notes that “average” total costs associated with “typical” mis-hires was…about 24 times the person’s base compensation. The economic loss of mis-hiring can reach negative ROI’s of over 500%. Organizations simply cannot afford such losses. (3 Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People” Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D.)
Sustainable results derive more naturally from purposeful actions and enhance peace of mind. It is that simple!
Leading with P e a c e f u l Productivity® provides practical, insightful ways to lead happier and more productive lives – as individuals and together in teams. A number of measures are influenced by peaceful working conditions. Dignity, meaning and community are key motivators for workers, rather than time cards, piecework measures, Six Sigma, and the like.
While efficiency might benefit from Six Sigma, Lean or other process-driven methods, the employee is not motivated by such measures or pressures when applied in isolation. Understanding the overall significance of one’s work and why each individual’s work is important to the whole makes the dominant difference in quality and output. Motivation is key to engage employees and to enhance their productivity. It is engaging the imagination of individuals that engages one’s emotion. And it is emotion rather than logic that moves the will.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
VI. Business Model for Success – peace @work
One objective of P e a c e f u l Productivity® is to integrate the personal and professional lives of workers for greater personal and organizational success.
P e a c e f u l Productivity® builds the best match between social and technical systems. Purposeful Collaboration creates and enhances peace @work.
Attitude makes the difference. With peace of mind, personal productivity has a profound basis upon which to flourish. We gain balance and perspective. We act with compassion and integrity, kindness and generosity. We trust life and those around us. We are optimistic. Meaningful collaboration becomes a way of life. Things just seem to work better! We maintain peace of mind. And financial results improve. We experience a better life and a better world.
VII. Summary and Call to Action
P e a c e f u l Productivity® can help you and your organization build the bridge to greater fulfillment and satisfaction both personally and professionally. When individuals come to work with greater peace of mind, productivity improves and immediate and enduring results are enormously enhanced. Imagine the positive differences for you and for your teams — a more peaceful and productive future.
If you believepeace @workis possible, please contact me to learn more about the P e a c e f u l Productivity® Series and how you might employ
P e a c e f u l Productivity® in your workplace. Lasting improvement begins within each individual. You are invited to take the first step.
Written by Virginia Williams, Ventures Worldwide Ltd – 2004