Energy on the farm

Energy in the company? Let’s increase it!
Such an answer sounds strange to most of our entrepreneurs and managers. When we talk about energy, in fact, their thoughts immediately go to what powers machines and plants and the efforts of time and resources to optimize energy consumption and improve the overall efficiency of production systems. All, of course, to increase competitiveness and corporate profits. All well and good, we’d miss it.

But why can’t we match the concept of energy with another key resource of companies, people?

When it comes to people, the concept of energy and efficiency disappears from the common practice of managers and entrepreneurs and consequently from the widespread thinking of people in the company. If I asked you how many projects in your company you have launched so far to reduce the number of hours worked, with the same results achieved, I don’t know how many answers I would get.

Working 10 hours at 40 percent efficiency or working 4 hours at 90 percent efficiency is not in the common concerns of the thousands of people I have met over the past 20 years in business.

Real efficiency in business starts with people energy management

The prevailing dominant belief is that you have a standard number of hours, 8-10-12 depending on the habits you have stratified, and that you have to fill them with the activities your job demands of you. Except then to strive desperately to fit everything possible into those hours, finally complaining about the time that is never enough to do everything we should have done, wanted to do, or wished to do. If we want to bring the principles of real efficiency into people management in business, we cannot help but consider each individual as a complex energy system in operation. And like any energy system its rules and operating principles must be thoroughly understood before we can truly optimize its performance.

What does energy mean to a person? Try to think about it.
You feel like you have more energy when you feel ready and rested to face the day ahead. Or when you can finish an important task in less time than usual thanks to a high degree of concentration and feeling great satisfaction. You feel you have a lot of energy when you can’t wait to immerse yourself in an activity that almost makes you forget that time is passing. You feel you have so much energy when you breathe a peaceful and cooperative atmosphere around you. Or when you simply feel appreciated and held in high regard by your colleagues.

Nice, isn’t it, to feel positive energy?
Is energy related to the results you get and consequently to the results the company gets? Of course! There is just one small detail.

Humans cannot derive energy from external sources, cannot purchase it, cannot exchange it with others’ energy.
They can only generate it on their own or react positively or negatively to the daily inputs they receive from their environment.

The Probios case: increasing people’s energy to grow

The company, whether we like it or not, represents the environment in which most of our active time is spent, and unfortunately very often it does not turn out to be an environment conducive to increased energy in people, quite the contrary… The attention of managers and entrepreneurs is often oriented toward the results they want to achieve, but much less toward the root causes and correlations with everything that leads to the sustainable and lasting results over time.

One case out of all, that of the company Probios, described in the book Toyota Way for Lean Leadership., where an intervention focused on increasing energy in the company led to a general change in organizational and individual habits, contributing significantly to the company’s overall growth: + 60% in the last 2 years.

“I have resumed playing golf and taking family vacations, ” says Fernando Favilli, president of Probios Group. to spend time thinking about so-called “Gold Activities” for the consolidation and growth of my company. Paradoxically, I have more responsibilities, but more free time.”

People’s energy is deeply correlated with individual and corporate results, and when this is lacking the effects are noticeable. It is no accident that about 70 percent of change projects in companies fail. One of the most recurring causes of failure turns out to be precisely the lack of energy to support change.

The Lean Leader, among his or her tasks, must never forget what is perhaps the most important of all: fostering the increased energy of the people involved in company projects. This task will bring a twofold benefit, fostering more results over time, but above all, growing the well-being of the people in the company.