Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the author of a Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovch, writes that on one occasion the Gulag camp commander instructed the Gulag bakery to add sawdust to the flour so it would go further. This tricked hungry stomachs to think they were satisfied. Ivan saw a camp guard crouching in the latrines with a pencil, trying to relieve his chronic constipation. The practice of putting a little sawdust into the bread was stopped.
The way some organizations operate today is similar to putting sawdust into the flour so it looks like there’s more bread. Of course, I’m not comparing an office or factory to a Soviet prison camp. I’m drawing a comparison between those in power and their obsession with productivity and efficiency, and the disregard of the effects on the individual. Producing more with less is efficiency. It’s also doing more with what you have. A change in production can result in more loaves being produced with the same amount flour. If the bread produced is not digestible, it’s still not an efficiency.
A poorly thought-out efficiency initiative could have unintended effects. For example, a migration to a brand new computer system can cause production to be sluggish. It is difficult to make it work, so employees revert back to the old system. This leads two systems being used and an increase in efficiency. The new system never reaches the efficiency potential that was originally predicted.
Often, efficiency initiatives involve a reduction in the number of employees and/or a slimmer management structure. The organisation may lose its most experienced staff and experience a knowledge deficit as a result of redundancies or early retirements. Some organisations have minimum staffing requirements that can increase health and safety hazards, especially when they are unwilling to use agency staff or cover short-term absences.
The thinner management structure and the increased spans in responsibility means that managers are now responsible for areas they do not have any prior knowledge or background. This increases the risk of them failing to ask the right questions or spot problems at an early stage. The increased stress and pressure of not feeling in complete control of your brief is another factor.
This graphic illustration shows how companies can make mistakes if they focus only on efficiency.
