THEhe lexicon of business performance is always abundant. Between two feedbacks (feedback) and a dozen KPIs (key performance indicators), sometimes, the manager even gets tangled up. “The marketing team was very efficient in Q3 [third quarter, troisième trimestre] “, exclaims with pride Françoise, CEO of a trendy SME. But what Françoise does not know is that her marketing managers have dug into the treasury to achieve their goals: they have even recruited subcontractors to finish the job. So, the team is effective, yes, but the method is in no way efficient.
THE‘French Academy calls troublemakers to order: is efficient “Which produces an effect by itself: it can be used, for example, to qualify a machine or the means implemented”. In management, we often wrongly qualify a team as efficient, when it is just efficient. The two long synonymous words split up in the 1950s, thanks to a new meaning ofefficiency from across the Channel, generating two nuances of performance.
Efficiency, to begin with, is performance in its raw state: an efficient company fulfills the functions and objectives set beforehand, focusing on essential tasks performed with perfectionism. This force is implemented whatever the cost: ” the end justifies the means “.
Efficiency can be detrimental to effectiveness
Sometimes the effectiveness is achieved in a disproportionate way: for example, slaughtering a fly with a state-of-the-art electric racquet, when it would have been enough to open the window. This is the famous “Pyrrhic victory”, which this Greek general won at the cost of numerous losses against the Romans. Working more hours increases efficiency in the short term but reduces productivity in the long term: exhausted teams will not be able to win the next fight or keep up with the next business plans.
Efficiency is the solution to this somewhat wobbly management: it is the art of doing the best, but with a minimum of resources. It is the relationship between the objectives achieved and the resources (financial, material, human) used. Sometimes the tools are lacking, and efficiency can limit breakage: emptying a swimming pool with a spoon can be efficient, if it is the only solution, “We do what we can with what we have”.
An efficient working method is an optimized method, which offers productivity gains: for example, a management plan with progress reports, a clear definition of processes and the division of tasks … Or the adult equivalent of a pretty bristol card with eight colors of stabilo to reflect the nuances of knowledge. Here, the means are at least as important as the end.
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