I often describe an effort as efficient and/or effective. I’ve discovered that many people don’t necessarily distinguish between the two or evaluate work efforts in this way. Would you rather be efficient or effective? I know it’s a false choice and the answer is “both,” but indulge me. If you must choose, which would it be?
Efficiency describes the rate at which an outcome is achieved and the resources consumed to accomplish that goal or task. Effectiveness measures the impact or result of the effort or task.
Therefore, one could be efficient at producing work – doing it quickly and/or with limited resources, but with little or no results. On the other hand, one could produce highly impactful work, but it may have required an exorbitant amount of resources (time, money, labor, materials).
Granted, neither is desirable and the situation as presented is vague and hypothetical to make a point.
Just to spark some conversation, I suggest that it is better to be effective than efficient. Whatever effort you invest, it should serve a purpose. Start with the end in mind. What is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish? Be sure to hit your target. You may expend a disproportionate amount of time, money, and labor at first, but with experience you can gain efficiency.
On the other hand, if you are incredibly efficient at doing all the wrong things, how do you learn or become more effective?
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