Chapter 3 efficiency and effectiveness

Management guru Peter Drucker once pointed out succinctly in the book "Effective Supervisor": "Efficiency is 'doing things in the right way', while effectiveness is "doing the right thing". Efficiency and effectiveness should not be neglected But that doesn’t mean that efficiency and effectiveness are equally important. Of course we want to improve efficiency and effectiveness at the same time, but when efficiency and effectiveness can’t be both, we should first focus on efficiency and then try to improve efficiency.” What a classic exposition!Note that in this passage, Peter Drucker presents two parallel sets of concepts: efficiency and effectiveness, doing things right and doing the right thing.In real life, whether it is the business behavior of an enterprise or the working method of an individual, people often focus on the former: efficiency and doing things right.But in fact, the most important thing is effectiveness rather than efficiency, doing the right thing rather than doing the right thing.As Peter Drucker said: "What is indispensable to a business is effectiveness, not efficiency."

"Doing things right" emphasizes efficiency, and the result is to make us move towards our goals faster; "Doing the right thing" emphasizes efficiency, and the result is to ensure that our work is firmly moving towards our goals step forward.In other words, efficiency is concerned with the best way to do a job, and effectiveness is concerned with the best use of time—which includes doing or not doing a certain job.The biggest secret of McKinsey's great work method is that every McKinseyer must first make sure that he is "doing the right thing" before starting work.

There is an essential difference between "doing things right" and "doing the right thing". "Doing things right" is based on the premise of "doing the right thing". Without such a premise, "doing things right" will become meaningless.Do the right thing first, then do it right.Just imagine, in an industrial enterprise, an employee is on the production line and produces products according to the requirements. The quality and operation behavior have reached the standard. He is doing things correctly.But if the product has no buyers, no users, it's not doing the right thing.At this time, no matter how correct his way of doing things is, the result is futile.

To do things correctly, but also to do the right thing, is not only an important working method, but also a very important management idea.At any time, for any person or organization, "doing the right thing" is far more important than "doing the right thing".For the survival and development of an enterprise, "doing the right thing" is solved by the enterprise strategy, while "doing the right thing" is an implementation problem.If you do the right thing, even if there are some deviations in the execution, the result may not be fatal; but if you do the wrong thing, even if the execution is perfect, the result will definitely be a disaster for the enterprise.

For enterprises, the effect of advocating the working method of "doing the right thing" and cultivating people who "do the right thing" is completely different from advocating the working method of "doing the right thing" and cultivating people who "do the right thing". of.The former is conservative and passive, while the latter is aggressive and innovative. Ormwell Greenshaw, a senior consultant at McKinsey, once pointed out: "We don't necessarily know what the right path is, but we should not go too far on the wrong path." As a warning, he told us a very important working method. If we still don't know where the "right way" (right thing) is for a while, at the very least, let's stop what we are doing!