Productive V/s Effective

I was reading through a very interesting book "The Gold" by Eliyahu M. Goldrath. The book published in the 1980s rocked the Operations department and set new standards in management. We would never be able to judge the outcome of a task, if there are no metrics to measure. That said, the crucial point is what metric to choose to measure which metric!

This is where the author struck "gold" when he talks about the difference between productivity and effectiveness. Productivity referring to doing things that matter the most towards our ultimate goal, and effectiveness merely talks about doing things right.

Most of our schooling has been designed to prepare us for the industrial age - we have forgotten that we are now in the Information age! The old form of lifestyle that focusses on getting things done effectively no longer apply in this time and age. Our lifestyle has become a lot comfortable; technology has enabled us to connect us anywhere in the world. Shouldn't we be focussing on improving relationships and communications with our near and dear ones, instead of focusing on other mundane. It is time to take time to identify what we really value! That would be our goal, and any activity that leads us to our goal is measured for productivity. Doing everything else right is only being effective, not necessarily productive. If we can get "productivity" to lead, then get "effectiveness" to follow suit, most of us would enjoy our work and life. Don't you think?