RE: Productivity Gains?

["Richard L Hamilton" <dick -at- rlhamilton -dot- net>]

> 
> Exactly what I was thinking. Wouldn't it be better to find out
> exactly what management wants rather than guessing?
> 
Generally, I would agree with this, but I have seen situations
where management didn't really know what they wanted, but when
asked, they came up with something nearly impossible to implement.

I usually prefer to figure out what I can easily do, then ask
management if that's what they want. If they say yes, you're
set. Otherwise, you've got a starting point for a discussion.
If you leave it wide open, they may ask for the impossible,
and you will spend a lot of time backing them down.

The one thing I would avoid at any cost is any attempt to measure
productivity using hard metrics (page counts, word counts, etc.).
Measurements like that don't measure real productivity and in
fact usually lower productivity.

One other thing I haven't seen in this thread: ask your team
what would make them more productive. You may need to filter
out the request for an espresso machine, but they are more
likely to know what would help them be more productive than
you or any other manager.

Regards,
Richard Hamilton

Managing Writers: A Real World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation
http://xmlpress.net/managingwriters.html 



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