Effective or Efficient

A lot of times, we hear people talk about efficiency. Let us say it takes 2 hours to produce a widget. Let us say by cutting corners, you get it down to an hour and 48 minutes. You have achieved an efficiency of 10% not which is not bad. What if "you think out of the box" and figure out an innovative way of making the same widget in 30 minutes. That is a 75% improvement which is much better.

When you hear people talk about efficiency, it always helps to take a step back and look at the task in question and ask whether there is a more effective way of doing it. The quest for efficiency does not necessarily have to preclude an option for effectiveness. In fact, it should be a first check.

Making an ineffective process efficient is like masking the symptom of a problem.

Go forth and be effective and efficiency will follow.