What are the hidden costs of efficiency?

What are the hidden costs of efficiency?

Balancing the need for being efficient alongside the costs of efficiency is a continual juggle in our workplaces.

As this theme creeps in both directly and indirectly to many of my training programs, I thought it would be useful to explore it a little further.

In our dash toward efficiency at work, it’s worthwhile thinking about what might be slipping through the cracks. Getting things done quickly meets our KPIs, but if we’re only focused on speed, we might be missing out on quite a bit.

Here’s a look at five ways an efficiency-first approach could be costing us more than we realise:

1. Relationship Building: When we’re all about ticking boxes and meeting deadlines, there’s hardly time for relationship building. This rush can leave little space for building genuine connections, for connecting with the wonderful humans on our team, or in our workplace, making the workplace feel more isolated and leading to a lack of belonging. We can also end up slipping into below the line behaviours and incivility as we disconnect from others’ humanity and let the deadlines prevail.

2. Reflective Learning: Constantly moving from one task to the next means we barely have time to stop and think about what we’ve just done. Reflecting on our work, discussing what went well or what didn’t, is crucial for learning and growing. But when efficiency rules, this important learning curve gets flattened. We also miss out on identifying our skills and strengths and recognise the progress we are making.

3. Employee Well-being: Always being on the clock puts a ton of pressure on everyone. This relentless push can lead to stress, burnout, and a general feeling of being undervalued. When efficiency takes the front seat, employee wellbeing takes a back seat. We can forget that high performance is founded on employees’ wellbeing, having good bandwidth, energy and motivation.

4. Innovation and Creativity: Innovation needs space to breathe, mistakes to learn from, and freedom to experiment. If we’re too focused on not wasting a second, we might shut down the creative process before it even starts, missing out on innovation and emerging ideas.

5. Organisational Culture: When the vibe around the office is all about being efficient, people might start keeping problems to themselves. No one wants to seem slow or behind, so smaller issues can go unmentioned until they turn into big ones.

"The cult of speed doesn't allow you to deepen, engage, or feel." – Carl Honoré

Carl Honoré did an excellent TED talk almost 20 years ago called In Praise of Slowness (link below) I highly recommend it as another way to reflect on the pressure to be fast and busy in both our personal and professional lives.

Balancing our drive for efficiency with our need for slow, for connection and being present is critical.

This broader perspective that includes well-being, learning, and quality, can make our workplaces healthier and more productive. It’s about making sure that while we’re doing things right, we’re also doing the right things. That’s how we create a place where everyone not only works well but also thrives.

I’d love to hear from you in terms of how you find this balance.