Countering a Busyness Culture

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Countering a Busyness Culture

Busy, busy, busy… Professor Waytz of Kellogg School of Management rightly argues that in the current business world almost everyone feels busy and busyness has become a status symbol. He says a culture of busyness exists, in which we consider hard-working people to be "morally admirable" (regardless of their meaningful output). The effects are well known and disastrous - both for employees and for the productivity of the organization.

Most interestingly, in HBR Mar-Apr 2023, Waytz recommends 5 approaches as "antidotes" for companies who want to do something about it, we might call it "organizational time management":
1. Reward output, not just activity.
2. Assess whether your organization is generating deep work and eliminating low-value work.
3. Force people off the clock.
4. Model the right behavior.
5. Build slack into the system (avoid overly strict constraints on time, resources, budget).
⇨I am looking forward to your thoughts and experiences. Please focus in this thread on the organizational, culture level, not what individuals can do themselves.

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		2 Judith Santizo Consultant, Guatemala
	Busy Conjuncture I believe that it is important to promote an organization culture that is supported by values and principles. It is also to be taken into consideration that various think tanks do not accept, due to their youth, that this hustle and bustle exists. For organizations, the most important thing is productivity, but this is not achieved without the involvement of all staff and proper supervision by the media.

		2 Norman Dragt Netherlands
	There is More to Busyness Culture There is something to say for a culture that focusses on quality of work instead of quantity. However there will always be a problem with this approach. For example, let's look at the financial department. Every publicly owned company has to publish its annual numbers. So in the first months of the new year the financial department will be having 2 jobs running at the same time. Firstly the day-to-day financial activities. Secondly getting the numbers of the previous year ready for the accountant and the annual reports, while also already creating the quarterly financial report. To address this workload you could increase the number of financial employees. However that would be a heavy financial burden as they only cost money without making any additional profit. Another solution would of course be to not make a company publicly owned. However that forces the financials in your organisation to come up with new streams of financing on top of revenue and bank loans. All in all, it's hard to get out of this problem of time pressure for certain departments of an organisation. So there is a problem with output reward, forcing people off the clock, eliminating low-value work, building slack into the system, it might work in certain departments that can freely plan their workload, but there are enough departments that will never be free of time constraints. Another example is sales / account management. Which new customer is going to except that they need to follow the planning of the account manager? Or consider the judicial department, will any judge grant the company lawyer more time than is legally allowed?

		2 Helen Strong Business Consultant, South Africa
	Be Systematic in Beating Busyness Busyness is not always productive – and besides that, the pressure of being busy can result in mistakes because there is 'not enough time' to check something before taking action. To improve the situation, I believe the organization needs to identify: In which areas there are 'expected' deadlines or a need for an increase in productivity (e.g. financial reporting, school terms, public holidays, seasonal changes). Where there have been costly errors and missed 'deadlines' for action (e.g. preparation of tenders). Which employees lack work / life balance. The above is not a once-off exercise, but should be reviewed regularly… especially in fast-moving and innovative industries. As has already been mentioned it is important to constantly involve the staff in giving an early warning when problems may occur --- and in identifying solutions. In other words, become conscious of when periods of insane busyness take place -- establish the causes and then design systems and action plans that will remove the pressure. Have solution options ready for implementation when the problems emerge and/or the pace is starting to pick up.

		2 Ebrahim Vahedi Director, Iran
	Change Busy, Busy, Busy Culture I think Professor Waytz' 5 step instructions can indeed modify a busyness culture in organizations. When the actual output or in fact the productivity of people is being assessed and rewarded, and people are trained to do their work in the right ways for the right targets and mind while eliminating other tasks they used to perform, subsequently the culture of the organization will change.

		1 Anonymous
	High Costs of not Countering Busyness in Firms The costs of not countering a prevailing "busyness culture" are higher than you think. According to psychologist Peart, "Stress makes people nearly three times as likely to leave their jobs, temporarily impairs strategic thinking, and dulls creative abilities. Burnout, then, is a threat to your bottom line, one that costs the U.S. more than $300 billion a year in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity, and medical, legal, and insurance costs." Natalia Peart (2019), "Making Work Less Stressful and More Engaging for Your Employees", HBR.

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Work-Life and Time Management Workshops Thanks for your interesting responses so far. Indeed, doing nothing against such culture of busyness causes a lot of misery for the employees, but arguably also costs organizations a lot of money. One practical and obvious project is to offer time management and/or work-life balance workshops to employees and managers on a large scale. This allows them to polish up their practical skills, and also helps them to realize the importance of time management and a good work/life balance for themselves and for the organization. Make sure that you also include (unconscious) behavioral and cultural aspects in those training courses! After all, it is the culture that you want to improve, not just some personal skills.

		2 Oyewole Ola Coach, Nigeria
	Create a Process and Focus on MIT + Fun Learning organizations have developed a culture/environment that helps employee focus on the most important things (MIT) while also making efforts that permit staff to enjoy working with fun. Such env...

		2 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Busyness Situations and Their Management There seem to be 3 main reasons for "busyness": The SYSTEM within which people work: Causes inefficiency so people have to do a lot of "running about" in order to get an acceptable level of w...

		1 Judith Santizo Consultant, Guatemala
	Time Management Workshops (Jaap de Jonge) @Jaap de Jonge: Indeed, what you express responds to the use of time in the work activities. Organizations use many resources in various work and time management workshops, but there is no magic rule,...