An industry colleague shared this article by Adam Waytz who challenges busyness versus productivity. It also offers ways to break away from this fixation.
Activity is not achievement, and the sooner companies recognize that, the better off they and their employees will be.”
Source: Harvard Business Review, March-April 2023. Link. Five approaches are offered to help overcome the obsession with busyness:
- Reward output, not just activity
- Assess whether you are generating deep work and eliminating low-value work
- Force people off the clock
- Model the right behavior
- Build slack into the system
INSIGHTS: Waytz says the major causes of busyness are constraints on time and resources. Our animal health industry continues to experience a lack of slack due to a shortage of veterinarians and veterinary technicians. The adoption of new technologies and effectively delegating tasks can bring opportunities to increase teams’ resiliency.
Easy? No. Important? Yes.