Productivity is surprisingly 2 times! 8 things improved to increase productivity.

Regarding Japan's productivity, various things have been said for a long time. That despite long working hours, work is not being done. That despite being busy, nothing is being produced. In fact, the productivity of Japanese people is the lowest among developed countries.

I think there are various opinions, such as cultural background, or that overseas methods cannot be used even if brought into Japan. For example, that Japanese people are meticulous in their work. However, even taking that into account, being the lowest in productivity among developed countries is questionable.

If overseas methods cannot be brought in as they are and improved, then we should devise a method that suits Japanese culture to solve the problem. Because, no matter how meticulously you work, if it's not valued more highly than comparable products from other countries, isn't it meaningless? I can't help but think.

So, I tried various things. However, it wasn't as groundbreaking as a 'trial'; I just re-examined the basics. As a result, productivity doubled. However, we are an organization of about 6 people, and in a contract-based format (web production), so it might not suit every team.

After much thought and experimentation, I'll summarize what ultimately proved effective. Some things may seem obvious at first glance, but by thoroughly reviewing whether they are being done correctly, it might lead to increased efficiency.

Manage communication costs

First, this: communication. In any case, there's too much wasteful communication in Japanese society. It's better to focus much more on how much cost is incurred due to excessive communication.

Simply put, if you're having multiple meetings despite receiving the same amount of money, it's natural that costs are incurred for each meeting held.

For example, internal meetings. Internal meetings also incur costs the more you hold them. You should thoroughly consider whether those meetings are truly necessary, and whether you're taking time to gather for things that could be handled by phone or Skype. While there are regular meetings for sharing awareness, you should focus on creating an awareness and system that allows for information sharing even without regular meetings.

If it's to prevent miscommunication, then you should focus on fostering awareness and creating mechanisms that prevent errors even with minimal communication. Relying on communication is, I believe, inertia towards system building. Solving problems with systems is lower cost than solving them with communication.

The same goes for communication with clients. I've heard talk somewhere about 'creating communication to forgive minor mistakes,' but fundamentally, work should be judged by results. If you're delivering results in your daily work, clients will want to 'use' you even without frequent meetings.

Even from the perspective of a service user, since you're paying for the service, it's better to focus on what you're supposed to do rather than spending extra time communicating with the service provider. If you can't confirm trust without frequent meetings, then you should work with someone more trustworthy.

Furthermore, I often hear stories that prices increase by meeting, or that value improves based on the appearance of materials, but this is completely baffling. No matter how many times you meet, or how good the materials look, if the desired service is not ultimately provided, it's worthless. In the end, if you entrust the work, you expect content that meets or exceeds your expectations with minimal effort. Normally, that's the ideal.

Being able to explain past achievements and the logic behind them. And determining whether the amount paid for that value is appropriate, while looking at the industry average. A lot of communication is not necessary there. If you understand the value, a decision can be made. If you can't understand that value in one go, then the other party's explanation was probably unclear. Would you choose a company that gives unclear explanations?

Of course, there is also necessary communication, such as brainstorming, meetings for business creation, and initial face-to-face meetings. The important thing is to clearly recognize necessary and unnecessary communication and to judge whether it should be done or not. In any case, there may be Japanese business customs, but it is necessary to firmly grasp the understanding that communication also incurs costs and manage it.

For now, we first aimed to optimize communication and thoroughly considered a system that could work even with fewer meetings. For web production, it's not uncommon to smoothly reach delivery with just email and chat. Now, thanks to this, direct communication is overwhelmingly limited to enjoyable drinking parties, initial meetings, brainstorming, and situations where we absolutely must meet face-to-face for business. We can now afford to adjust prices to some extent according to customer requests.

Utilizing IT tools

And what we use for various cost reductions and optimization are IT tools. If IT is not used, there are many cases where a company misses opportunities due to delayed adoption. In this day and age, unnecessary costs might be incurred.

First, basically, team internal meetings are held on Skype whenever possible. We also sometimes recommend Skype for communication with customers when it's feasible. Of course, there are cases where meeting in person for communication is better. However, compared to simply going to meet in person, there are various benefits such as reduced travel expenses and elimination of unnecessary conversations. Especially, the reduction in travel costs is significant. Furthermore, time can also be saved. You can work right up until the meeting and resume work immediately after it ends. If you were meeting in person, there would be travel time and travel costs before and after this.

As a result, there's more leeway in work, so for example, even if requests increase slightly, we can often accommodate them. Also, as work time increases, the quality has significantly improved. Even if something is forgotten or a confirmation is missed, it can now be compensated for with quick communication using chat.

Consequently, we gained trust through the results of our work, and repeat customers increased. Ultimately, reducing communication costs using Skype created a situation where not only the service provider but also the customers could obtain services at a low cost while enhancing the value of the product.

Furthermore, common communications within the team and interactions with customers are mostly handled through Chatwork, LINE groups, and Facebook groups. After a meeting on Skype, we also immediately share the minutes using the tools mentioned above. There are various communication tools, but all things considered, for simple information exchange, the tools we are accustomed to using daily seem to be the easiest to check. As for Facebook and and LINE, we check them at random moments, so responses and confirmations are quick. By the way, we hardly use email anymore. Now, 99% of what we receive is spam.

There are many other useful tools. Timezone.io, a tool that allows you to grasp who is where on the tool. Slack, a communication tool that has recently swept the world. Tools that support new ways of working are constantly being born, such as Sqwiggle, a video chat app that stays connected. I think that using these can further optimize communication, but considering that I'm not yet used to them and their current ease of introduction, I'm using the tools right in front of me.

Scrutinize the work to be accepted, narrow down to areas of expertise

In the case of outsourcing, I wonder if this was the most effective thing, all things considered. Even if it's not outsourcing, there might be cases where you force yourself to do things you can't. When doing sales, in similar fields, it's easy to accept any and all work. You take anything that seems possible, and you say you can do anything that seems doable, regardless of past experience. While for huge amounts, the money you gain might be greater than the cost, it's better to consider the possibility that it's actually a net negative. Especially for small teams with limited resources, waste should be eliminated to the extreme.

For example, even if you receive an order for 3 million yen, the more time, personnel costs, transportation costs, communication costs, and other miscellaneous expenses involved, the lower the value of that 3 million yen becomes. If unknown or inexperienced tasks, or extremely time-consuming tasks arise, it takes even more effort to research them or waste time. If it took a year to finish providing a service, it might have been better to complete 12 projects of 250,000 yen per month, which would have resulted in lower risks, costs, and above all, 'stress'.

This is especially true for post-payment, let alone pre-payment. If the collection cycle is slow, there are cases where the client itself goes bankrupt and collection becomes impossible. There's also a possibility that your team's cash flow will stop. There's also a possibility of being ghosted. It's natural that the more money you handle, the higher the risk and stress. That's why you shouldn't get into a situation where you can do anything, but rather, while considering the actual effort and cost involved, you need to think about a 'system that allows you to acquire work that you are good at and requires as little effort as possible, for the highest possible price'.

And as I've been saying, the word 'stress' – in reality, taking on any and all work and proceeding while researching unfamiliar areas puts a great deal of stress on you. Since you're making something you can't do possible within a fixed period, the stress is immense. That stress reduces productivity and can even affect other tasks that you should be able to do. If you're doing unfamiliar work, you should proceed after adding someone experienced to your team. Or, provide it after researching and becoming capable. Otherwise, you will sacrifice productivity.

Optimization of direction-related tasks

Is this unique to web production and graphic design work? Or not. Not limited to web or graphic design, in the case of outsourcing, there's a role to communicate with clients, so I hope this can be a reference for that. Anyway, I thoroughly optimized the direction tasks. And we standardized them into common rules, aligning understanding among team members and agency directors. So, what exactly does optimizing and standardizing direction tasks mean?

In the case of web production, if you manage to elicit this information, there's a fundamental principle that a certain level of projects will undoubtedly align with the desired image. Often, designs are created that don't match the image, or fundamental revisions occur frequently, leading to project 'flames' (problems), but this is because the most basic principles are not being followed. If you adhere to the standards, there are even projects that can be completed solely through chat, without direct verbal communication.

For example, if you produce a design that differs from the client's image, it's because you're producing something different from what the client envisions. That's obvious, isn't it? In that case, during meetings, all you need to do is thoroughly align the creator's and the client's images. If the client doesn't have a concrete image, then it's a matter of direction, where you help them envision a satisfactory design along with your proposals. Designs created without aligning consciousness or perception will undoubtedly result in wasted effort.

In any case, accidents occur because both parties have differing perceptions of what is 'cool' or 'cute'. This isn't limited to design. Accidents happen because perceptions are misaligned. Isn't this common in all types of work? All you need to do is bridge that gap as much as possible, that's it. Most often, when accidents happen, the phase of aligning perceptions is insufficient.

It's actually quite common for designers to be given work with instructions like, 'For now, please create two patterns of cool-looking designs.' Since the image of 'cool' differs from person to person, it naturally varies between the client and the director, and even among designers. Creating a shared understanding of what 'cool' means among everyone is a step towards not producing irrelevant things. However, surprisingly, this is often not done.

Therefore, based on our past successful experiences, we compiled a comprehensive set of direction methods. We then aligned perceptions not only within our team but also with our agencies, instructing them to always follow these methods and extract specific information. As a result, project-related accidents have almost disappeared, and now work can proceed smoothly with minimal revisions.

What I want to say here is that the most successful methods should be templated and shared by everyone. Muji (Mujirushi Ryohin) reportedly has a manual called Mujigram, but manuals are meant to be used. They shouldn't simply restrict members; rather, members should contribute to their creation. If you add original methods, you should incorporate them into the manual and collectively explore what is most efficient overall. After that, if you incorporate some of your own methodologies or habits, I think that's fine. Nobody wants a project to go wrong. In that case, everyone should simply share the methods that are least likely to lead to problems.

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, if you narrow down job orders to areas you excel in and gradually expand those areas of expertise, it becomes relatively easier to standardize direction rules. In other words, only after implementing all the improvements mentioned so far will everything be able to function at 100%.

Don't postpone work that can be done now.

It's a classic, but surprisingly, it's often not done. Respond to communications immediately. Finish work that can be done now quickly. This might be the very key to gaining trust while reducing communication costs. Replying to a chat or having a short phone conversation doesn't take much time each instance. Let's get them done quickly. By finishing them, you can reduce the stress of thinking, 'I have to reply.'

Regarding this article, I'm writing it in my spare time, but if I finish my work at lightning speed, I can update my own content that much more. Let's make it a habit to finish what needs to be done at lightning speed, go home quickly, and do what we want to do. There might be times when you can't pick up speed because you're not used to the job yet. Even so, by limiting the scope and continuously doing specific things, you'll be able to gain speed.

Accumulate practice, gain experience, and work with a sense of speed. Respond immediately to replies and finish what can be finished right away. This mindset helps improve production efficiency. That's why overtime pay is detrimental. It's a system that lowers company productivity and causes team members to lose their own time. Rather, it's clear that a system where you get paid more if you can finish early is important. Of course, that would require solid management to evenly distribute the workload among individuals.

Thoroughly manage current tasks

Therefore, the concepts of management and work distribution become necessary. If you want to evaluate individual productivity, you need to distribute work appropriately. In Japan, there is often a culture where people who finish early help those who are behind. However, instead of solving it by helping, wouldn't it be more important for the task allocator to adjust and manage the evaluation itself, for example, by giving less work to those who are behind and lowering their evaluation accordingly, to provide appropriate evaluations?

Furthermore, if capable people help those who are less capable outside of proper management, even if it's out of a spirit of mutual assistance, the capable people might not receive appropriate evaluation for their efforts. This is because there's no system to properly evaluate the help provided. Forms like 'someone saw it' or 'you seem to be working hard' are far too vague. There should be a system in place to properly evaluate capable individuals.

On top of that, overtime pay is distributed even to those who couldn't finish, leading to the mysterious outcome where salaries increase despite pushing work onto others. Not only are appropriate evaluations not given, but work tends to accumulate with capable people, becoming more demanding, eventually leading to decreased motivation and a trend where talented individuals leave.

To properly evaluate people, management must distribute tasks appropriately. If there's a huge amount of overtime or evaluations aren't done properly, I feel it's simply due to the inertia of the managers. Distributing and managing work appropriately is crucial for efficiently utilizing internal resources. Understanding resources and allocating work appropriately is something individuals can also do, so it's worth trying.

Thoroughly manage time and costs

Capable people have a strong awareness of time and cost. What am I doing now, and what should I do next? By being clearly aware, they increase productivity. For tasks, it's important to always have a sense of finishing work by a certain time or finishing a task in a certain number of hours. For example, even for the same task, the cost is overwhelmingly different if one person finishes it in 3 hours compared to someone leisurely taking 5 hours.

It's a simple matter, but if your hourly wage is 2,000 yen, 3 hours would cost 6,000 yen, and 5 hours would cost 10,000 yen. However, I feel that overwhelmingly few people in Japan work with such an awareness right now. In that case, productivity will only continue to decline. If you continue to work without being aware of the relationship between your work and its cost, it will be a huge blow to the team. It's only natural to entrust work to people who can produce good results quickly.

However, as mentioned earlier, Japan has adopted a very irrational system where people who work slowly earn more because overtime pay is given to those who work idly. It's the opposite. We must create a system that evaluates people who produce good results quickly, and everyone should be motivated towards that. That's why everyone can be encouraged to work while being aware of the costs and time involved. While simply discussing such awareness issues is important, for already established teams, it's unreasonable to suddenly ask them to change their mindset, so we must change the system to enable a shift in awareness. While some problems might be resolved through "nominication" (drinking communication), when it comes to major reforms affecting the core, "nominication" alone is sometimes not enough.

If sole proprietors start to be aware of this, their productivity will dramatically increase. Always be conscious of how much time you spend to complete the task at hand. For example, when you undertake a 50,000 yen job, how much time should you spend to finish it to achieve your ideal income? If you calculate at 5,000 yen per hour, it's 10 hours. If it's 10,000 yen, it's 5 hours. Simply maintaining this awareness will likely affect your actual earnings.

Roughly plan the path

Finally, consider what you want to achieve. Then, work backward from your goal to plan the path. You might then understand what you should do first. From the perspective of the goal, you might be able to grasp your current position to some extent. In today's rapidly changing world, even the goals themselves can change. However, even if the path changes in the future, there is meaning in setting an immediate goal and taking steps towards it.

For example, can you keep working hard without knowing where you're going or what your destination is? Can you maintain motivation for your current job if all that lies ahead are days of mere continuation? At some point, your will is likely to break.

However, what if you can see the destination right in front of you? Just clearly seeing how much further you have to go and the path to get there can help you maintain motivation. This is natural for those managing an organization. Highly capable people are not primarily driven by money. No matter how much money is offered, if they cannot find value in the work or working itself, they won't easily agree, I believe. Similarly, for individuals, there will likely be a difference in their power and drive depending on whether they have a goal in front of them or not.

I want to achieve this, I want to achieve that. Such aspirations for the future stir an individual's heart and generate a certain explosive power. In an extreme case, wanting to be rich is fine, but it's also true that such overt desires can make it difficult to move people's hearts when used as a driving force. Show a vision to your colleagues and yourself, and turn it into a driving force. If you're not feeling motivated, why not create at least one goal in front of you, even if it's a white lie?

Summary

As a result of improving the 8 items above, we were able to dramatically increase productivity. While all of these might seem obvious when you actually think about them, surprisingly, many people don't implement them. If you review your own way of working and find anything applicable, it might be worth trying.

However, one thing I've noticed is that Japanese culture and business practices themselves sometimes overtly lower productivity. Especially holding unnecessary meetings at unnecessary times, or taking an hour to discuss something that could be resolved in 15 minutes over the phone, and talking about unnecessary things. I can't help but think that unnecessary things should be discussed during breaks or outside of work hours.

It is said that Japanese productivity is the lowest among developed countries, but to change this situation, improvements may be needed from a more fundamental level of awareness. As long as there is an image of poor productivity, the current way of working cannot be the best.