At first hearing, the words effective and efficient might seem interchangeable.
They’re not – quite.
Per Merriam-Webster, to be effective is to produce an expected result. To be efficient is to produce that expected result, but with little or no waste. You might finish your task for a given day (effective) but not necessarily in the most efficient way.
Take the group of lumberjacks getting ready to start a full day of timber-cutting. Among the lumberjacks were a grizzled veteran and a fresh-faced newbie. The older man had long been regarded as the best, but the new, younger man, brimming with confidence, challenged the old pro to a friendly contest. The challenge was accepted.
The appointed day arrived. The starting gun fired, and the contest was on. Working at a furious pace, the younger man nonetheless glimpsed at his foe every few minutes. He saw the same thing every time – the veteran, sitting on a log with his back turned.
The younger man’s confidence grew, as the older man seemed to have given up. An hour passed, at which time they stopped for the official count.
The old pro, who seemed to have been doing nothing, had won.
The younger man was at a complete loss when he approached his opponent. “Sir,” he asked, “every time I looked at you, you were just sitting on a log. How did you manage to cut more trees?”
The veteran smiled. “Son, I wasn’t just sitting on that log,” he said. “You didn’t see that while I was sitting, I was sharpening my axe. You didn’t stop to sharpen yours.”
The younger man was effective, in that he cut a more-than-respectable number of trees. But the older man was more efficient – he did more work in the same amount of time because he kept his axe sharper. If you don’t keep your skills sharp, and add skills when you can, you might continue to be effective, but you won’t be as efficient as your co-workers – or competitors.
So when you feel you’re too busy being effective to stop and improve yourself through training, think of the wise, veteran lumberjack. Train. Learn new strategies and techniques. Brainstorm with your co-workers and managers. Become more efficient.
