Work Style Reform - Exercise for Being Efficient

Sachiko, one of my best friends, used to work for a Japanese company. She quit the company after working for seven years because the work efficiency was too low.

Sachiko understood that company employees had to compete against each other, but did not understand why her co-workers worked for almost 14 hours every day. If she had worked for only eight hours, i.e., the regular working hours, she would have had to work nearly two times more efficiently than they did. It was impossible.

Another reason for her quitting the job was that almost all male employees were fully supported by their wives. When they went home, everything, e.g., dinner, bath and bed, was ready, because they all had stay-at-home wives. In other words, their output was not only their, but also their and their wives' joint achievement. Sachiko had no intention of having a stay-at-home husband.

Work style reform has been one of the hottest issues in Japan and its major purpose is to improve work efficiency. However, according to Sachiko, as long as people like her former co-workers decide how to work, workplace efficiency will never improve, because they don’t know how to work efficiently.

The most difficult part of working is not to do what to do, but to decide what not to do, i.e., prioritization. Prioritization requires a decision of what to let go. Sachiko saw at the previous company every employee of her department being assigned more than 50 projects per year. They knew that they wouldn't be able to finish them, but couldn’t say so or let go less prioritized projects.  

Prioritization requires criteria and criteria requires successful and unsuccessful experiences. And such experiences require the actual performance of prioritization. This cycle goes on and on.

So, the question is how to develop such a virtuous efficiency improvement cycle so that employees make decisions leading to improved efficiency on their own.

By the way, efficiency can improve, but not forever. When it is maximized, it's time to let it go.

If you are interested in a story about the comparison between the concept of "mottainai" and that of "let it go," please go to: http://keinarujima.blogspot.jp/2017/09/mottainai-make-it-work-or-let-it-go.html