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Effectiveness & Efficiency
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Effectiveness & Efficiency
It was one of those days when I was trying to get a place at the Citizen's Service Centre to get a new passport.
There is no way to renew your passport online, the next free place is in 11 weeks.
Of course we are in Germany, we are in love with our bureaucracy!
"My God, why is this damn thing so inefficient?"
Or is it ineffective?
Let's google it and find out:
Doing the right things – Effectiveness
Doing things right – Efficiency
By ©Peter Drucker
They sound like something out of a fortune cookie.
Easy to remember? Maybe.
Revealing? Not so much!
So I dug a little deeper to find out what they really mean.
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Definition
The Cambridge Dictionary defines them as:
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Efficiency
- working or operating quickly and effectively in an organized way.
- working in a way that does not waste a resource (= something valuable such as fuel, water, or money).
Source
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Effectiveness
- successful or achieving the results that you want
- Producing the intended result.
Source
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My Definition
All of these definitions fail to point out one key aspect: time!
Efficiency is the ratio of output to input over a given period of time.
Effectiveness is the degree to which a result is achieved based on the original intent in a given time.
Why is time so important?
Because it's the differentiating factor!
Time is finite, it is the most valuable resource.
I need my passport now!
But this was not going to be a rant about my desperate need for a new passport, it was going to be a story about customer focus.
Those who know me know how much I love pizza.
So let's take a pizzeria as an example.
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Pizza Experiment
I read an excellent analogy that points out that each and every combination of these two can occur.
- The taste and temperature of the pizza is perfect (effective) and I get it very quick (efficient)
- The taste and temperature of the pizza is perfect (effective) but I have to wait too long (inefficient)
- I get a cup of coffee instead of pizza (ineffective) but very quick (efficient)
- I get cold pizza (ineffective) and I have to wait too long (inefficient)
Source
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Modus Operandi
Depending on the task and the environment you're working in, it's important to know what you're aiming for!
Taking the pizza example, what is your business model?
Do you want to compete with the big franchises or do you want to get a Michelin star?
If the former, you probably want to work on efficiency first and effectiveness later.
In the case of the passport authority I was dealing with at the time.
They wanted effectiveness, in this case the accuracy of the passport!
They'd rather not issue a document at all, but issue one to someone who's not eligible.
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Final thoughts
Going back to the first Google result I got:
Doing the right things - Effectiveness.
Doing the right things - Efficiency.
By ©Peter Drucker
One could argue that only giving passports to eligible people is "doing things right" and therefore efficient.
Giving me my passport is "doing the right things" and therefore effective.
But it tells me that one value internal processes more than the customer's time.
Customer focus is not a top priority.
Something I have noticed many times in companies as well.
I moved from an internal cybersecurity architecture role to a customer-facing cybersecurity consulting role 6 month ago and learned a lot.
It is not always easy to get it right.
But it is all worth the effort.
Thanks for Reading!