Make no mistake, productivity requires change. If your organization views the ability to change as an important business attribute, then ongoing productivity improvement can set you apart. An internal productivity culture that continually strives for optimal efficiency gives your organization the opportunity to enhance its market position, maximize its profits, increase its market share and position it for future growth and success.

Yesterday, Promotional Consultant Today shared three key attributes to ensure a culture of productivity. Today, we share three more.

1. Employee Communication: Virtually all productivity enhancements are a form of change. This change must be communicated in the following ways to those affected by it:

  • Be clear in your own mind about what you want to say.

  • Be consistent over time in your messaging.

  • Be aware that varying audiences have different needs and worries.

  • Explain rationale in a way that listeners can best relate to the issue.

  • People are persuaded more by the human dimension than by statistical facts.

  • Showing your genuine passion and enthusiasm has potential to create similar feelings in your listeners.

2. Self And Organizational Learning: Organizational learning is born through a combination of formalized education and business experience, both of which are driven (or suppressed) by the organization's internal culture. Educationally, different employees need different types of training in order to grow. Technologists need to learn new technologies. Senior executives need to keep abreast of industry trends and corporate best practices. Lastly, all employees need to maximize their interpersonal skills, business skills and emotional intelligence. These skills collectively help employees of all levels to not only identify organizational efficiencies, but also provide the business savvy to make it a reality.

Professional curiosity in both individuals and organizations cause them to be introspective and more aware of their external environment. Introspection causes people to ask the question, "How can I improve?" External awareness causes people to ask the question, "What can I learn from my surroundings that can help me and/or my company successfully move forward?" Both of these questions lead to innovative thought and help drive productivity.

3. Conflict Avoidance And Resolution: Productivity drives change and change drives conflict. The ability to minimize this conflict helps facilitate change, which in turn, drives productivity. Your personal and organizational ability to deal effectively with conflict can make or break your ability to enhance organizational productivity.

A good thing to remember if your project is being slowed or stopped by a specific individual is that 99 percent of the time people are not against you, they are for themselves. This means that if you can understand the reason behind someone's objections, you can very often turn a presumed adversary into an ally.

Where appropriate, devise a plan to slowly move toward a true productivity culture. This culture, in turn, will be your stepping stone toward continuous improvement, change management and full utilization of the time, money and resources your organization needs to grow and prosper.

Source: Eric P. Bloom is president and founder of Manager Mechanics LLC, and a nationally recognized speaker and author of the forthcoming book Productivity Driven Success: Hidden Secrets of Organizational Efficiency. He is also a nationally syndicated columnist, certified executive coach, and an adjunct research advisor for International Data Corporation (IDC). He is also a past president of National Speakers Association New England.