Community of Practice (CoP) shares and seeks productivity tips, tools and techniques that could help you reduce stress, increase output, and improve work-life balance.

If you’re feeling stressed, consider that it might not be managing what you’re doing – but what you’re not doing – that’s the start of the problem.

"There’s a lot of stress that gets generated around how we manage our productivity systems, and it’s all around expectations,” said Terry Barash, service architect, Department of Service Automation, and leader of the Productivity Community of Practice.

“The stress usually comes not from the stuff we’re doing but the stuff in the back of our head that we think we should be doing. Learning how to manage those things is what’s important.”

According to Barash, many of our productivity systems made sense when they were put in place but don’t work anymore. “We are operating under an old paradigm that we have enough time in our day to get everything done,” he said. “We don’t. What we need is a whole new system.”

So what is the new paradigm? “Productivity is not about getting everything done, but regaining power over everything you have to do and handle, versus being driven by everything you have to do and handle,” said Barash. 

“Personal productivity is an ongoing discipline like exercise. It takes tremendous focus and effort and benefits are not yielded over days and hours, but months and years,” said Vijay Sankaran, director, Application Development and sponsor of the Productivity CoP.

Among the references available on the Productivity CoP Web site is a presentation with audio that introduces various methods and tools for managing productivity. It is part of something called the Productivity Challenge, originally announced at the February 2009 meeting of the CoP. Employees are challenged to implement just one of the ideas in the presentation and then return to the site and share experiences with others in a discussion board dedicated to this activity.

"I appreciate the excellent productivity tips presented at the Productivity CoP Kick-off Event,” said Tom Capaldi, an ITO-S3 application lead and a participant in the challenge. “The difficult part has been the purging of bad habits acquired over the years. However, I have been able to implement at least one of the tips presented at the meeting: reserving Outlook calendar time for non-meeting, strategic work. The best part about the tips is that many of them are stand-alone and should be relatively easy to implement.”

“I took on some of the actions that were highlighted in the productivity challenge, and I think the Not Doing Now/Never Doing Now lists have definitely added to my personal productivity,” said Cynthia Protas Hodges, a supervisor in PD who also took the challenge. (For more on Hodges’ experience, read the related story: “A Productivity Challenge success story”)

Not Doing Now is a list of activities that you are committed to doing eventually; you should transfer items from this list to your active calendar within 30 days or move them to a Never Doing List.

The Never Doing Now list is more of a wish list of things you would like to do but are not a priority. Keeping the Never Doing Now list helps you keep the Not Doing Now list manageable. Barash points out that your recycling bin by your desk or on your computer can be your de facto Never Doing Now list.

The Productivity CoP has also launched a new ONE Ford Productivity Recognition activity. Employees can recognize those people who are demonstrating ONE Ford behaviors specifically in the area of personal or team productivity.

Another presentation on the Productivity CoP Web site created by Barash is called “How to ‘Better E-mail.’” It is available as either a PowerPoint presentation or a Podcast. It captures guidance from multiple sources, including the Collaborative Solutions team, of which Barash was a member. Tips include:

o       Use the To: field for those who must take action and the Cc: field for those who do not need to respond. Only reply to the sender or the person who needs to take action

o       Use keywords in the subject field such as FYI, Info needed, Status Report, or Action Required

o       Specify action required, by whom, by when, in the first line

o       Summarize message content in the first two to three lines

“There are many tools and best practices out there to help personal productivity gains, none of which alone are a panacea,” explained Sankaran. “However, by being disciplined and adhering to a set of principles over an ongoing basis, the results will be dramatic. Stress will reduce, your output will increase, your work-life balance will improve, and what you thought you never could accomplish in 40 hours - you can now do in 20, and that's worth the return on investment.”

The Productivity CoP is an enterprisewide CoP which encourages cross-Ford and global participation.

For Barash, leading the CoP is a source of deep personal gratification. “I love being able to empower others. My personal mission statement is to empower others to achieve extraordinary results regardless of the circumstances.”