Improving Output

Edward Muzio: Hi. I'm Edward Muzio, CEO of Group Harmonics. I'm going to tell you about how to improve output of the people who work for you.

[00:00:07] If you've ever had a hard time getting someone to do something, you know how difficult it can be. Sometimes people just won't move. If you're missing one of the six key factors for performance, then it'll be very hard to get someone to do what you want. I'm going to explain those to you here. They are: purpose, resources, incentive, visibility, encouragement, and capability.

[00:00:27] Here's how this works. The first thing we need is clear purpose. Let's say you want me to build a little house out of wooden blocks. You need to draw me a picture of the house I'm going to build, sketch it out, explain it‑‑something‑‑so I know what I'm trying to do.

[00:00:38] Now, let's say in business instead, you're trying to have me redesign a business process. Again, I'm going to need a statement of work, a clear statement of output expectations, a clear statement of goals, some kind of a definition of what I'm heading for, otherwise, I'm not going to know what to do.

[00:00:51] The second one is resources. Now, if I'm building a house out of blocks, I'm going to need some blocks. That's easy. And often, in business, I need some physical resources. I might also need some human resources; those are people that can help me. Whatever it is, I need to have control over the materials and resources I need to do the job.

[00:01:08] The third one is incentive. Now, we often think about money in terms of incentive, and that's what I've drawn here. And money certainly is an incentive. You can pay me to build the little house out of blocks. You can pay me to redesign the business process. But there are intrinsic motivations as well. I might find it enjoyable and just do it for that reason. I might have some other personal career‑growth reason I want to do it. Whatever it is, I need to have some version of incentive, internal or external, that'll get me to want to do it.

[00:01:32] The next thing after that is visibility. I need to have some idea that I'm making progress. Now, if I'm building a house out of blocks, so I'm just stacking blocks up, I'm going to start to see progress. That's pretty easy.

[00:01:43] It's a lot harder in business. If I'm redesigning a business process over the course of a year, how do I know I'm getting there? Are there milestones? Are there checkpoints? Do I have a task list that ties into things that'll actually get me toward the key milestones or deliverables? These things have to be figured out. If I can't see myself making progress, I'm likely to get stuck, get stalled, or spin my wheels.

[00:02:02] The next one is encouragement. That's number five. Somewhere along the line, someone needs to encourage me to do things. Now, that may be telling me it's a good job and helping steer me along the right path. That may be explaining, in the case of the business process, how things are going and why what I'm doing is important to the company. Maybe you walk in, look at my little house, and say it's coming along nicely‑‑whatever it is, some connection to the work I'm doing and the broader picture and positive reinforcement.

[00:02:27] And last but not least is capability. This has to do with the contents of my head. If I'm going to build a little house out of blocks, I need to know how to build with blocks. That's simple. But if I'm going to redesign a business process for you, I need to understand the current business process, know how to use the software involved if there is some, know how the company works, et cetera. These are the contents of my head that can only be solved through education and training. If I don't have the capability, I can't do the work.

[00:02:51] So that's it. These six things will get your people going: purpose, resources, incentive, visibility, encouragement, and capability. If you have all those six things in place, you've got a much greater chance of getting people to do what you want them to do.