Productivity Reimagined

13We Can Do This!

In the preceding chapters, we’ve shown why most companies have a productivity problem. We’ve also outlined how innovative leaders have countered widely held myths to achieve, through continuous improvement, sustainable growth that benefits all stakeholders.

In this chapter, we’ll look at the steps that leading companies have taken to transition from the traditional command-and-control approach to a productivity-driven model based on employee engagement and continuous improvement.

Let’s start with a recap of our two hypothetical companies outlined in Chapter 2:

• Company A follows traditional top-down management practices. Leaders determine how the work is to be done and give orders to their staff accordingly. Individuals, functional groups, and departments are treated as independent entities under centralized control. Pay and promotion are determined by individual performance according to a set of predetermined criteria. Employees are ranked and encouraged to compete with each other.
• Company B is managed as an interactive system where people and functional teams depend on each other. Supervisors aren’t expected to have all the answers, and they rely on frontline workers to share their workplace knowledge and take an active role in improving their work processes. All employees know they are participants in a team culture pursuing common goals, and solve problems together to move the company forward.

When organizations follow the Company B approach, as you’ve ...