Increasing Productivity: Three Steps to Achieve Effective Practices and Advance in the New World of Work

How productive are you? Do you get everything done that you plan to do each week? Has your workflow been disrupted by changing demands and expectations? In a digitally-accelerated world, work is evolving, becoming less linear or predictable. It’s time to be proactive with personal and team strategies and tactics to streamline your work, accomplish your tasks, and be more effective in a more challenging, competitive work environment.

Work Disrupted

Work looks and feel different. We used to be able to develop long-term strategies, schedule numerous specific steps over multiple years and execute upon them. We didn’t have to think too hard about how we got our work done. We were told what to do. There was a defined process in place that we learned, followed, and repeated. For some tasks, we were on auto pilot.

Things have changed. Technology developments have given us unprecedented interconnectivity, mobility, with real-time data generation and sharing. Digitized customer feedback loops and global competitor developments have shortened and accelerated update cycles. Between 1970 and 2009, highly cognitive non-routine work grew by 60 percent, while repetitive work declined by 12 percent. Many basic, routine tasks are being…