Discipline-based Productivity vs. Managerial Productivity - Part I

Much has been said about productivity improvements in organisations. It can be seen in an organisation's top level reporting that productivity improvements simply aren't occurring. However, if you ask individuals you'll see that their personal productivity is improving all the time. Actually, whole disciplines are becoming more productive every day. So why not organisations?

(Part 1 of a 3 part article)

The effort it takes to create a software application is less than it was 10 years ago. Let's take an example of a simple application to store names and address. It would take about 30 seconds to create such an application today.

To create that software application now we simply open Microsoft Excel and type the word "Name" at the top of one column and the word "Address" at the top of the other. The reason it is easier to create this software application is because technologies exist to help us with this.

Critics of the IT industry will immediately suggest that while this is a solution to the problem it isn't very useable. More importantly it requires users of the application to already have some knowledge of the product in which it is build (i.e. Microsoft Excel).

What the critics don't acknowledge is that the situation is not unique to the disciplines of information technology. As any discipline, be it engineering, craft, marketing, or even management, builds up a toolkit of generally accepted tools they at once increase their productivity and constrain the use of their products and services.

If we take an example outside the IT-based disciplines we see the more general situation. Even as the medical profession adopts a toolkit of drug-based relief to medical conditions it makes it more difficult for those seeking natural remedies to get relief the same medical conditions.

It should be noted that even if the drug-based approach is better than any other approach there will be dissatisfaction from those who have a different need or opinion than the medical profession. Equally, even if the drug-based approach isn't better than other approaches, it will be make the medical profession more productive - by at least some measures.

Again, I'll assert that individual disciplines actually are becoming more and more productive all the time. Whatever your profession, you'll find yourself confronting similar situations again and again as you progress through your career. Over time you'll develop skills and adopt behaviours which improve your ability to respond to those situations.

If you're keen, you'll look to other people in your chosen field to help you identify and adopt those skills and behaviours more quickly.

Every profession does this. Clerical staff. IT Consultants. Computer Programmers. Actors. Authors. Mechanics. Sales People. Marketing People. Managers.

So everybody is getting more and more productive. But not organisations. Why?

More in Part II.

Monopolies, Governments, and Operating Systems

I was just reading in the Sydney Morning Herald that "JAPAN, China and South Korea plan to develop an original operating system in a bid to challenge the domination of Microsoft Windows."

This consortium is also planning to "develop their own unique application software programs, including those for word processing and spreadsheets".

Sure; the countries are expected to do this by improving an open-source operating system like Linux. But the first suspicion should be raised around the idea of improving Linux. The open-source model itself already improves Linux.

The way a government would contribute to the improvement of such an operating system would be to create incentives for organisations to channel resources to the improvement and use of such an operating system; not to "develop an original operating system".

The fact is, in terms of consumer choice, privacy of information, open data formats, etc; what is the best alternative? That a large corporate monopoly force an operating system down people's throats, or a government monopoly force an operating system down people's throats.

We want governments to use open source operating systems (file formats, etc) for reasons more important than because some of us think Microsoft is a monopoly.

Andrew; please tell me what to think (at morenews.blogspot.com).