We live in an age of e-commerce, fiber optics, information systems and infrastructure, and ideas and initiatives moving at the speed of light through a network of silicon and wiring. And that prompts one to ask, why do so many good ideas go bad?
Could it be that we have forgotten in this gizmo-oriented age to effectively manage our most important assets?
After all, the most critical success factor in this knowledge-based economy is not some piece of hardware. It’s people. Having motivated, educated, and enthused employees is the most important aspect of any successful enterprise or initiative.
But today’s tight labor, particularly the critical shortage of knowledge workers, is affecting all companies. Attracting and retaining the best people is the key to future success.
Keeping a competitive edge, though, means not only cracking the tough nut of attracting good people with an appealing work environment. Companies must also master the equally formidable challenge of optimizing employees’ productivity.
The Perils of Information Overload
Neither of those tasks is remotely easy.
Just as information age efficiencies demanded alterations in the processes and productivity measurements that made perfect sense in the industrial age, so, too, must companies adapt human performance measures. Unfortunately, however, the industrial insights of Fredrick Taylor — that is, treating people as equipment — were adopted in today’s service and information industries.
Experience, however, demonstrates that technological and strategic initiatives can fail miserably when the people who operate the technology or carry out the strategy are not included.
In addition, the information age presents huge challenges in managing people and performance. True, communication technology allows users to work faster, better and smarter. At the same time, though, technology by its very nature is sapping one of our most precious resources — people’s attention.
The Institute for the Future, for example, recently conducted a study that found that the average white-collar worker daily sends and receives 190 messages (email, voice, fax, mail, etc.). Unsurprisingly, nearly three-fourths of workers said they felt overwhelmed by information overload.
True, the technology that’s caused information overload offers some solutions. E-mail filters and telephone caller ID, for example, allow users to spend time and attention only on information of value.
The greater truth, though, is that too much information can produce dire consequences — for example, overlooking vital pieces of information in making important decisions, having less time to work (i.e., think) and spreading employee attention too thinly, resulting in less focus and less urgency.
Taming the dragon of recruiting and retaining able, motivated, and satisfied employees is only part of the challenge. Companies must also create an environment in which those employees have both the time, plus the relatively uninterrupted attention, to perform at peak efficiency.
Employee Buy-In a Critical Factor
In the High-Performance Workplace
At the same time, companies must also engross employees’ attention.
Empowered to make their own decisions, knowledge workers are an entrepreneurial breed. Accordingly, employee buy-in becomes a crucial success factor.
Remaining competitive in the information age, then, requires modifying the top-down management style of prioritizing and delegating, however well it once worked. Getting your employees’ full attention is absolutely essential in the success of any strategy or initiative. And the single best way to command that attention is to get employees’ participation.
Clearly, any enterprise that intends to survive into the future must take a rigorous approach to creating an optimal environment to maximize knowledge workers’ performance. Optimizing the organization for the information age offers hefty economic benefits, research demonstrates.
Consider one study of transitioning to “high-performance work practices” that examined employee skills, organizational structures and employee motivation. The impact of implementing those new practices was profound, including a turnover decrease of more than 7 percent and a per-employee sales increase of more than $27,000.
In short, there is a healthy payoff in getting employees to pay attention.
