Thinking for a Living

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Interventions, Measures, and Experiments in Knowledge Work

It may seem obvious that we’re not going to get better performance and results from knowledge workers unless we somehow intervene in their work. But we’ve avoided doing so in the past. As Peter Drucker notes, we have not generally focused on knowledge worker productivity or performance. He recently commented, “Nobody has really looked at productivity in white collar work in a scientific way. But whenever we do look at it, it is grotesquely unproductive.”¹ The dominant approach has been to rely on their individual brains alone, rather than on any approach to improving work. I often say that the typical way of dealing with knowledge workers is to HSPALTA, or “hire smart people and ...