Production versus Production Capability

A colleague recently discussed a dilemma about her upcoming licensure exam.  She wants to do her best to prepare for the tests, but also needs to continue earning.  Should she go on leave, or resign?  Although I advised a compromise of sorts, I told her that bottom line is that the exams come first because her job only produces current income, while the license will give her a chance to earn much more in the future.

In our personal experiences and in our organizations, we often have to choose between those activities that produce something (like income, products, or services), and activities that enhance our capability to produce.  Should we work, or study?  Should we spend all our time and effort on delivering services, or in finding ways to improve the way we deliver services?  Should we spend our money buying a better batching plant?

If we concentrate on production, we see the benefits almost immediately: more output, needs are addressed, customer satisfaction increases.  Until the next peak season for demand, when we have to produce again.  Given the apparently constant increase in demand, we find ourselves having to work harder to produce more and more.  You might be able to feed yourself, but there’s a danger that in the future you’ll make just barely enough to keep on working – isang kahig, isang tuka – or that you’ll eternally be damned to responding to one crisis after another.

On the other hand, concentrating on improving production capability bears the promise that at some time in the future, we will be reaping the benefits of our efforts when we start earning more, or when we become more productive.  But until that happens, it is only a promise and an expectation.  In the meantime, you may not earn or produce enough, your stomach and your customers grumble.  You might have a bright future ahead of you, but you might not survive to see it.

Somewhere between these two extremes there must be some kind of reasonable middle ground.  In line with the principle of “First Things First”, the best thing to do is to spend time on important production capability concerns first.  Then fire away on urgent production stuff.  How do you manage to produce enough not to die out before your PC projects pay off?  Sacrifice the unimportant (you know what these are), invest what you have in things that are truly important – like getting a professional license.