📈 Productivity Tips and Tricks
illoguild question #20: An Interview with a Process Improvement Director
Hi everyone!
As promised, here is an interview about productivity with Vaibhav, my fiancé and the guy whose job it is to help people improve their productivity! (See the other illoguild posts about productivity here.)
I started by asking Vaibahv about his job so you can have a better sense of what he does, and then I asked productivity questions to see how they connect between the hospital world and the creative world. I found it refreshing to hear from the perspective of someone outside of my creative bubble.
So let’s go to it…
Katie: Hi Vaibhav! Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise with all of us today. First, can you explain a bit about your job and how you help people improve their productivity?
Vaibhav: Of course! I am the Director of Project Management and Process Improvement at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Trust, which is the Hospital’s fundraising arm. My role consists of bringing people together that are involved in a process to look at what they do today and call out the pain points in that process. The goal really is to open communication and remove all the “pebbles” from their shoes to make their lives easier which in turn makes them more productive.
Katie: Making life easier to improve productivity sounds like something a lot of creatives would appreciate, too! So how do you define productivity?
Vaibhav: The easy answer is how efficient a process or production is, but in reality it’s more complicated depending on the world you’re in. The definition could change if you’re in a learning environment versus a manufacturing environment, being an individual or an organization. But the important part is defining it to the environment and phase of a project you’re in. You can’t beat yourself up over not making money if you’re still in the learning phase.
Katie: That’s true— how can we be productive if we don’t know where we are currently? I have definitely skipped that step before, so thanks for the reminder!
Are there certain areas or factors that you rank or score when first helping someone identify a process to improve?
Vaibhav: The first thing we usually do is create a “current state” process map. This is just looking at what you do today and really getting down to the details. People always love to jump to brainstorming how they can change and be better but rarely take the time to look at, in detail, what they do today.
Our projects usually start with a gut feel of “this doesn’t seem like the most efficient way to work,” and we try to put some hard data together to ensure that what ever changes we make actually worked. This could be how much output you’re doing in a given time or financial ratios, like return on investment (ROI) and others but generally it’s either time or money based.
Once you identify your current state and pain points, and once you have some supporting data, then comes the fun part of brainstorming ideas to improve. Since we need a way to prioritize the ideas, we’ll create a matrix with the x-axis being effort and the y-axis being impact and place all the ideas on the plot and focus efforts on the low effort high impact (below). May sound technical but it’s easy!
Katie: A lot of creatives get so many ideas, and it’s hard to know which one to do next. Thinking through the ideas with this “low effort, high impact” matrix could be super useful.
You help so many people and teams identify these areas for improvement, so what’s an area that you often see needs improvement?
Vaibhav: Communication. I work in an organization with 180+ people and the only way to get things done is teamwork. A lot of times just getting different people in the room together that are part of the process to talk about what their role is gets the wheels turning and we can find a lot of quick and easy process improvement ideas. There’s nothing like getting people together in real life, or virtual, to have the conversation of what’s working versus what’s not, while at the same time being empathetic and actively listening. Most times we find that people on one side of the process don’t even know that what/how they’re doing something is dramatically affecting someone else downstream. That 2-minute conversation could save you countless hours.
Katie: So true. I definitely feel more productive if I can talk to someone about my work. And with client work, that communication is especially key!
If someone’s feeling stuck or unproductive, how would you suggest they get unstuck?
Vaibhav: This is a tough one as everyone is different. For me it’s self-reflection to identify maybe why I’m feeling stuck. Is it lack of motivation, unclear goals or something else. Next you can go in multiple different routes, start small, break down tasks, create smaller goals which in turns has more self-rewards. Sometimes it’s just going on walk, thinking about or doing something else completely different and celebrate the small wins.
Katie: Such great suggestions for getting unstuck and for being productive! Thank you so much, Vaibhav!
I found it really interesting to see how productivity at a hospital has parallels with productivity for creatives. Planning, communication, and creating action plans are all central to being productive in order to reach our goals.
Based on this interview, here are some actions steps for your creative goals:
Action steps:
Set a goal or pick a current goal have.
Write down what you’re actively doing to reach that goal.
Reflect on what you’re doing. Is it working? How much time does it take? Vaibhav suggests looking for actions that are “low effort and high impact.”
Now brainstorm ideas to improve your productivity. Write them all down.
Organize those ideas in a matrix like the one from the interview.
Start by doing the ideas in the “Proceed Box.” Avoid the ideas in the “Avoid Box!” You could think about doing the ideas in the “Consider Box” and “Investigate Box,” but you’ll need more time to plan and execute.
Go achieve your goal!
I hope you found this interview helpful. I find it refreshing to get a perspective from someone outside of the creative field!
See you next week,
Katie
This post is part of the monthly illoguild question. This month we focused on Productivity.
📚 This monthly illoguild newsletter is free. If you’d like to learn more about the Library of Toolkits, click here, or consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support my work:
Upcoming Live Events:
Illoguild Talks Bologna Children’s Book Fair on February 20 at 1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT / 2 AM MYT* / 5 AM AEST* *next day
(open to all subscribers)
Join the
in this bonus session as we discuss preparing for and visiting the Bologna Children’s Book Fair! We’ll share our best tips and tricks for what to bring, how to get portfolio reviews, and more. We’ll also be answering questions, so bring any that you may have. See you there!
Art Gym: Animals Workshop on Tuesday February 27
(open to paid subscribers)
Join Adam Ming and me in our second Art Gym workout! We have tons of good stuff to share with you about drawing and simplifying animals. If you’re a paid subscriber, use the button to sign up in the Art Gym post:
Illoguild Live on Monday, March 4 at 3 PM EST / 8 PM GMT / 4 AM MYT* / 7 AM AEST* *next day
(open to all subscribers)
Join the guild as we chat about staying positive despite rejection, unpredictable pay schedules, and more. Mark your calendars - Invite link coming soon!
I'm now going to mark all my to-do's according to the effort and impact thingy. Brilliant! 😁
Oh Thank you! Definitely going to try out this effort vs impact matrix!