No, Effy (efficiency) has not disappeared, she’s just ethereal, here, around us, within us… and nowhere all the same. At the individual level, efficiency can be synonymous to performance, since both mean optimizing inner resources to achieve greater results. Physical abilities, knowledge, talent, practice all these are basic resources from which we generate performance.

 

Individual performance

From an HR perspective, selecting, hiring, onboarding and training are all aiming at standardizing the resource an organization is employing. So the expected performance too can be standardized considering resources are set. That’s the logic behind grid objectives and standard appraisal scorecards. In a large organization where resources are heavily standardized, performance is often derived from the resource ability to reach its target without burning out, and that edge is stress management.

I invite you to read this article from Explorable that presents classic correlation models between stress and performance. The main takeaway is that by managing stress, individual can increase their performance above the standard point of fatigue.

 

Stress management

Now people I work with very often blame objectives, and targets as being a source of bad stress, impacting their efficiency and well being. It’s sometime true. More often though, it’s due to a struggle in managing an important resource at their disposal: Time! Balancing time, allowing idle time, allowing a personal life, all these are not detrimental to performance. On the contrary, idleness help the body to rest, help the mind to regenerate, and help creativity (as we saw in chaos theory, changes of mind provide alternatives and solutions to increase performance). As a manager, I often need to spend time helping staff to balance their time. I found that in the long run, it saved me time on management duties to spend two hours going through what no business schools apparently told them, how to effectively balance their time in a sustainable way.

This helps to create a team which is more focused, more innovative, and less likely to burn out; so greater performance, lower turnover, easier management.

 

Technology

Technology can be another support. Project management software, advanced communication tools or RPA can help manage and save time. However, the invasive nature of modern technology also means that with a phone and a cloud, you’re virtually able to work 24/7 in some industry, which makes stress management even more crucial to ensure healthy performance sustainable on the long run.

Human resource departments are generally aware of stress management benefits, but often fail to communicate this to other team managers and their direct direction, which are more accustomed to the classic squeezing approach, relying on extended use of OT and target pressure to stimulate short term performance. As a result, we observe some questionable decisions, such as forbidding coffee/cigarette breaks (or making them physically impossible). These informal breaks though, achieved horizontal and vertical idea sharing more than any other company wide suggestion box type of policy…

 

Relaxation

Time management aside, relaxation greatly contributes to reach a better work-life balance. Far from full yoga session under a desk, there are various techniques that could also be applied for work environment such as the one provide by Learn Relaxation Techniques. As a manager, I generally suggest well spaced holidays and ghost time.

 

As for Effy, her own technique to fish and nurture over achiever is to impose idle time…

 

G.M.