I hadn’t noticed.
Quietly, in a corner. Silently, no fanfare.
One day nothing. Today, wow… the first daffodils of spring.
February! It’s far too early. No matter. The conditions are right. A corner, out of the chill wind. Well tended soil. Sunny faces looking south for the warm, winter sunshine.
Growth… if the conditions are right, it’s what you get. Simples… not just in the garden but in our families with the kids and…
… in the economy. Growth, the holy-grail of politics.
HMG has bet heavily, on growth from big infrastructure projects and housebuilding. Despite workforce shortages in the construction industry and the shortage of some building materials.
Not forgetting, probably the biggest impediment… a planning system designed to say ‘no’.
Nominating some infrastructure, ‘projects of national importance’ and shifting decision making to the centre, is a possible change but it will create another time consuming battle.
It seems to me HMG is trying to grow an oak tree when they should be trying to grow a ‘host of golden daffodils’. Get the conditions right and encourage small business to flourish.
Why?
SMEs are faster at job creation, they are more innovative, they stimulate growth in their locality and diversify economies, which are likely to be more resilient and less vulnerable to shocks in any single sector.
How to do it?
Simplify regulation, tax breaks, expand access to loans and funding, invest in digital infrastructure and create opportunities for training and mentorship.
Like The Mittelstand Model that built and will this time, save the German economy.
The South Korean, Chaebol partnerships with startups inserted into supply chains.
Singapore government creating access to money for single-step start-ups. Singapore has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, and SMEs make up 99% of all businesses there.
Canada’s procurement policies prioritising start-ups.
Israel’s Innovation Authority resulting in the highest number of startups, per-capita anywhere in the world.
Not whacking smaller companies with tax increases and suffocating legislation.
There’s another element… sentiment. Call it confidence. Can an aspiring entrepreneur feel confident that their green-shoot efforts are not going to be killed-off with a late-frost of taxes and bureaucracy.
That’s not how the nation becomes more productive. That’s not how economies grow.
If you want growth in the nation it means productivity in the workplace, people have to feel they are important. Feeling they can ‘do it’, turns them into ‘can-do people’.
The conundrum of NHS productivity? The NHS is doing 7% more work than before covid, but with more people, productivity is not what it could be.
Just like national sentiment, the solution is to be found in the difference between rational commitment and emotional commitment.
The Corporate Leadership Council tell us 11% of people are enthusiasts. At the other end, perhaps 13% will be in free-fall with no commitment and four times more likely to leave.
The rest, 76%, will be floating. Committed perhaps to a person they work with or for, and an element of their job… but can take-or-leave the rest. Not emotionally committed.
It is vital to make people feel they are an important part of improvement, and productivity. The performance of the organisation and the wealth of the nation.
Feel they are part of the solution. Not the problem.
It’s important to understand improving productivity isn’t about working harder.
It’s about working smarter and the key to that is in the ideas and innovation of the people doing the job and their discretionary choice to be involved.
They’ll weigh the odds. If leaders tell us there are black holes in the economy, if things are bad, taxes go up, the books are in the red and the economy set to go south, who will take a risk.
Who would make an effort and…
… it is people making discretionary effort that makes all the difference. It’s claimed 20% higher levels of employee performance can be achieved, not because they’re paid more or provided with better benefits…
… but because each employee knows how important they are to the success of the organisation… or the nation.
Technically, whether it’s in the NHS or across the nation, it’s called ‘engagement’. In plain English it’s about leadership. Motivation, trust and confidence.
The P in productivity is ‘people’. The G in growth is… groups of people. Their attitude, their optimism, their energies. Their discretion.
Would you bother if you were told where you work is broken. Would you risk a start-up if the nation was on its uppers?
Shelter people from the chill wind, turn faces towards the warm winter sun. Tend the soil.
It’s called leadership.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
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