Drucker's Six Ideas about Knowledge Work Environments - DBR 031

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

In the podcast, we study knowledge work and how to get better at it. This touches on a lot of different disciplines, notably management. Typically, I discuss management as how we should manage ourselves. So, when I talk about managing knowledge work, I usually mean how do we manage ourselves as knowledge workers. I believe that we are increasingly called on to manage ourselves but covered that in Episode 11. Managing means many things, but it at least means watching out for a worker’s productivity - helping, coaching, teaching how to be a more productive (and thus valuable) knowledge work employee. This is also quite important as we look to manage ourselves. In this episode, I’ll talk about six components of knowledge worker productivity, as defined by Peter Drucker. I’d suggest that you look at each one of them to incorporate into your self-management, or look for in how you are managed. In this episode, I’ll unpack those and describe how to think about them. Knowledge worker productivity (at the level of the economy)

• Increasing knowledge worker productivity
• Peter Drucker asked the question 50 years ago

Attention compass is a knowledge worker operating system Knowledge worker productivity (at the level of the individual)

• The simplest way - eliminate waste.
• Defining productivity for knowledge workers so we can measure productivity for ourselves

Drucker’s six things – barriers to productivity 1 – Define the task

• Example – what task am I accomplishing here on this episode
• Hire people that are smarter than you and let them define the task

2 – Responsibility for productivity lies with the knowledge worker

• The expert alone can say what constitutes reasonable productivity

3 - Innovation is part of the knowledge worker’s job; nobody else can do it

• Example from programming – productivity is lines of code?
• Get out of their knowledge worker’s way while encouraging them to innovate on process
• Scrum as a knowledge worker management practice: kaizen in scrum

4 – Continuous learning (and teaching)

• Continuous learning and teaching – Continuing Education credits in the professions
• Continuous teaching to both ‘students’ and customers

5 – Balance productivity and quality – through the notion of waste

• Code as knowledge work – quality is hard to define and easy to overdo
• “Maximizing” quality vs. efficient quality
• But knowledge workers can’t do quality alone – we need input from the customer/user

(Aside, you're my customer and I'm a knowledge worker, let me hear from you so I can understand the quality you desire from my work - [email protected].) 6 – Knowledge workers want to work for the organization

• Knowledge workers' work suits the purposes of the organization – they’re productive in the environment and feel valued
• Knowledge workers want to do their specific work - it's hard to coerce knowledge workers; they’ll game the system

I discussed these things so you can consider them in your own environment. If you work for yourself (and lots of knowledge workers do), look to adopt these ideas and flesh them out in your own process. Think about your notion of quality. Spend time refining your production process. These (and the other things) are natural work for knowledge workers because of the nature of knowledge work. Not because you’re a solo worker. If you have a boss, consider these things. Look for them in your environment. Even though you don’t work solo or for yourself, you still need these things to some degree. Look into your work culture. And, if you feel able, discuss them with your boss.