Creating a balance between effectiveness and efficiency is a delicate job for anyone. On one hand, you have a choice of doing the right things – effectiveness, and on the other doing them right – efficiency. Although both sets of skills focus on different aspects of your business, only by synergizing their effects will you be able to create genuine value and increase productivity. Effectiveness and efficiency go hand in hand with each other. It is not a question of which one is more important, rather than in what order to apply them. Both have a significant place in the Lean Sigma Six method which focuses on high quality at every step of the way.
Effectiveness – doing the right things
No matter how efficient you might be, it is pointless if you are doing the wrong thing. So first of all, you must determine what it is that you should do. Effectiveness is more oriented towards goals and priorities and demands a bigger picture for a well-educated decision. That means understanding not only your company’s capabilities but also your competition, environment, customers, the market... basically anything that can affect your business in any way. Effectiveness also demands a great deal of collaboration, information sharing and is oriented towards creating innovative solutions, products and services. When it comes to the strategy, effectiveness is most prominent during the strategy formulation stage.
Efficiency – doing things right
On the other hand, you have a choice to do things faster, cheaper and simpler. Since you’ve identified your objectives, it is important to find out ways you can spend less time and effort into achieving them. Efficiency is process-oriented and is mainly in the strategy implementation stage. Efficiency usually leads to a process of innovation. Unlike effectiveness, progress and results of efficiency are more tangible and can be easily measured.
Effective Management VS. Efficient Management
One does not exclude the other. They should complement each other. First, you figure out what the right thing is, and then do it right. Simply – doing the right thing right. By paying attention to both approaches, you can create synergy effects and boost productivity. Both encourage innovations in different ways and call for a constant flow of information and collaboration.
Effectiveness skills are equally important as efficient skills, and based on the given situation, a good manager should act according to each specific situation. Procrastination and too much perfectionism is a poor choice no matter how good of an idea you had. If you choose to develop a certain product that has high potential but end up wasting too much time and money and fail to deliver it on time, that simply means poor management. Effectiveness is there to help you set objectives and efficiency to help you execute them in the best possible way. Instead of solely focusing on one, exercise both approaches and improve both sets of skills. And encourage your team to do the same through collaboration.
How do you find a balance between effectiveness and efficiency? Share your thoughts and let’s grow the innovation community together! Make Innovation Cloud your number one partner in business!
