Positivity and Productivity

We all know it don’t we? If we feel good we perform better. Take physical exercise as an example, the more positive we feel the more capable we become. Attitude defines outcome.

What is striking in business is how little attention is generally paid to developing positive feelings in our workforces in order to directly impact productivity. There are some examples of course where the organisation works hard to produce a positive working atmosphere knowing that productivity will positively gain. For example in the Special Services such as the SAS the units perform well because there is a huge amount of attention paid to enabling each individual to understand that they are a critical part of the unit (which they are). Sports teams pay a lot of money for psychological support to enhance attitude. And some business (e.g. Prudential Real Estate,  Creative Werks as outlined in the article Positive Teams Are More Productive in the Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2015/03/positive-teams-are-more-productive are showing the way in deliberately addressing positivity.

The key element for me is what is known as ‘discretionary effort’. This type of effort is freely given when there is positivity, and withheld when there is negativity. For example, a recent conversation with a project manager in construction was very revealing on the topic of home working. The sentiment was something like “We have provided as measurable increase in productivity whilst working from home. We want our productivity to be high, and it is because of the extra work we do from home instead of travelling. Now I am being required to go the office more than I consider necessary. So as I have an extra 4 hours travel a week, I will withhold 4 hours work that senior management would otherwise have had from me”. In other words, if staff are not listened to, they feel negative and do not give discretionary effort. This dynamic is blindingly obvious to all of us, so why do organizations still insist on sometimes applying rules which cause negativity? We can only answer that question by looking at each specific case of course, but our street-wise experience usually tells us that we can’t afford to generate negativity in our staff.

The rarely asked question from manager to staff is “How can I help you become more productive”. At heart the vast majority of professionals want to be productive and have great answers to this question. Maybe as we learn to trust our people in this dialogue they will tell us how we can increase both Positivity and Productivity.

Mark Miller – Director Goodfoot