Is The Reason Our Productivity Is So Low Staring Us In The Face?

Have you ever been sat happily at your computer when suddenly a text box appears in the middle of the screen? You read it and then you read it again and you have absolutely no idea what it means.

Then you look around, even if you are on your own, to check no one is looking and quickly press cancel praying that nothing too terrible will happen.

This rising feeling of panic is common because what we don’t understand frightens us and technology adds an extra layer to these feelings. After all if you are scared of spiders it doesn’t really affect anyone else. Unless you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off.

But with a computer there is always that fear that if you push cancel or somehow hit the wrong button you will cause the system to crash or your files to disappear.

Why is it when technology is now so much part of our lives that it can still create such feelings of terror?

Think about it. How did you learn to use a computer? Did you get expert tuition to take you through all the programmes step by step or did you teach yourself as you went along; with a bit of help from friends and family and some on the job training at work?

There is a story about a frog that might help explain what is happening. If you take a frog and drop it into a pot of boiling water it will leap out.

If you put a frog in cold water and very gently heat it up the frog will sit there until it gets boiled because it doesn’t realise what is happening.

(Don’t worry no frogs were hurt in the telling of this story!!!)

Computers and technology didn’t just land on our doorsteps from an alien planet they crept in slowly with word processors, main frames then PCs, laptops and hand held computers.

Most of us were happily working in our offices and businesses until that screen appeared on the desk. We were shown how to use it and like all good employees we learned how to do our jobs. Slowly things changed as new programmes were introduced or better keyboards. But as computers and other office technology became more sophisticated and the changes accelerated we were left further and further behind.

Of course we can survive day to day but can we use the full capability of our computer. How do you know what you don’t know? When you are busy you may be aware that things seem to take a long time but as long as they get done who cares?

Someone should because I believe this is a much bigger problem than anyone realises but because no one ever talks about it no one has been looking for a solution.

Could it be that the answer to our productivity problems is simpler than we think?

A trainee bus driver takes out a double-decker bus in England. As he is driving along the country roads he misjudges the height of a bridge and with a sickening crunch the bus gets wedged tightly underneath.

Well this creates a real stir. Everyone came out to add their two penny’s worth on how to get it out. Engineers, managers, fireman and other drivers put their ideas forward. Suggestions ranged from taking out a section of the bridge to sawing the top off the bus. All of them were drastic and very expensive solutions.

Then a young boy rode by on his bike. He took one look at the bus and cried out “Why don’t you let the tyres down?”

Have all the think tanks and job summits been missing the point about our productivity. Looking at solutions at too high a level? Perhaps we need a little boy of our own to take the air out of our tyres and offer a simpler more cost effective answer to our low productivity.

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