PEP (Personal Efficiency Program) 

Background

There has been an explosion of information in the workplace over the past 10 years - more paper, more emails, more interruptions, more meetings, more crises. We live in an information age, where the pace of work demands that we respond ever more quickly, or we fall behind.

This is characterised by people feeling:

• they are always short of time
• they have too much to do
• no matter how many hours they work, they’re always falling behind
• they are unable to focus on long-term improvement of their life and work because they face continual crisis or overload.

If this describes you, then take heart, you are not alone and there is a way to overcome these issues.

People often feel that they never have enough time and that they’re overworked and unproductive. In simple terms this is because most people have never been taught how to work efficiently and effectively. Although people may have been formally educated in their professions, few people, especially white collar workers, have any training in how to organise themselves or how to best process their work. They have they never been educated in the nuts and bolts of working in an office environment, but they haven’t been shown to how to deal with the ambiguity and complexity of the modern work environment.

In the absence of a formal learning process around these matters, most people tend to learn on the job and pick things up through trial and error. Often colleagues who seem to be coping become role models and pass on their ideas and processes. Sometimes this works - but not always.

How the program helps

The Personal Efficiency Program (PEP) develops the skills of efficiency (getting things done with the least amount of effort) and effectiveness (concentrating effort on doing the right things) both in an individual and an organisational context. The program aims to develop the skills necessary for individuals to ensure that their daily, weekly and ongoing activities support their objectives, projects and key result areas, while reflecting on the mission and vision of their organisation.

During the program, participants will:

• evaluate their work habits and compare them with the “Do it Now Approach”
• organise their workplace by applying the PEP principles of work space organisation
• understand and apply the principles and tools which support their efforts to be more effective, including the skills of planning and prioritising
• explore options and strategies to increase their effectiveness and achieve improved results in one-to-one and workgroup and team interactions.

They will learn to accomplish more, with less effort. What they do spend their time on will, typically, be the more important aspects of their jobs.

Deliverables

Typically participants who complete a PEP course report that they:

• get more done 
• feel more organised
• deal with interruptions better
• can find things easier and in a more timely fashion
• plan their time and workload better
• spend more time on their real priorities, and
• have less stress around their job.

Who is the program for?

PEP is for anybody who works on a range of activities in an administrative environment, particularly middle and senior level managers. Their main source of work can be paper, electronic, or a mixture of both.

The program can be particularly effective with groups of people who work together attending at the same time. They will often take the opportunity of being on a continuous improvement activity to develop agreed protocols for how they can improve their working relationships and effectiveness.

Program structure

The PEP process is unique, and ensures successful outcomes for participants. Typically, each training day consists of a 2.5 to 3 hour workshop in the morning, followed by personal coaching at each participant’s desk/work area during the afternoon.

Group size

There are normally two group sizes: a small group with one facilitator consists of up to six people, while a large group may be up to twelve people, and requires an additional facilitator.

Duration

Typically, the program takes place on three days over a period of about six weeks. The second day follows the first by two weeks, with the third day usually four weeks later.