Harvard Business Publishing

The easiest way to increase the productivity of people working on computers is to increase the size of their monitors. I recently suggested that a firm add an additional screen for all its customer service workers and you can see below that in a month's time, the time per call decreased from about three minutes and fifty seconds down to three minutes and twenty seconds - a 12% improvement -- with no additional training or change in the work load or work design.

Due to habit, most firms never consider increasing the size of the digital window, or windows, that we work within. If Henry Ford were around now, you can be sure that his employees would have at least two screens.

Most people don't know that you can add an additional screen to any laptop and, by changing the desktop settings, which takes less than a minute, create a continuous work space from one screen to the next. The mouse moves across; you can drag applications to the other screen seamlessly. (Windows can drive up to 10 screens.)

Why bother? Well, two screens lets you open two full-sized windows or applications at once, so if you are looking at your email, you can also see your calendar, or open a document. With the trivial cost of 15-to-19-inch screens, many now under $100, every knowledge worker should have at least two screens. They will pay for themselves almost immediately.

This handy tip is part of a larger concern I have. With the exception of extreme knowledge work jobs like bond trading or flying a combat aircraft, companies have not thought creatively about the interface of their knowledge workers and the information tools. The model may be "The Bloomberg," the information utility designed and delivered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's eponymous company. It comes with two side-by-side screens in the most popular installation.

Small investments can make a huge difference in productivity and employee satisfaction. Most executives have forgotten that a key task of management is to design work - not manage it in the existing design. With the increasing information intensity of all work, we must return to first principles and design more productive and useful interactions of people and their information tools.

You should ask yourself:

• Are my employees constrained by their screen estate?


• Have I looked at how to improve work - not just by automation, but by redesign?


• Why don't I use two screens?