There is nothing original in this post. It basic and only scratches the surface between effective and efficient. The author has not cited the originator of the idea: Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, published 30 years ago. He has not identified Peter Drucker as the source of the quote that begins “Being effective is about doing the right things ..l”

I get so tired of people taking classic ideas and pretending they are their own. And of people who repeat what is out there already. Let’s have a little originality and some new ideas!!!

Let’s say that there are 5 steps that must be done in the tire changing process. If each of these steps is done in order and no additional steps that destroy previous steps or impair the ability of future steps are added the tire change will be perfect 100% effective (to simplfy assume that each step is either done perfectly or not at all). Needed inputs: human labor, jack, and tire. Maximum effeciency: 3 minutes per step.

Person A: Does each step but takes 10 minutes per step. Effective but not ineffecient.

Person B: Does 4 of 5 steps in the minimum time per step. Ineffective but effecient.

Person C: Does all 5 steps in 15 minutes but adds an additional step which neither destroys previous steps not imapcts ability of future steps. Effective but ineffecient.

Person D: Takes 20 minutes in the first 4 steps then adds an additional step (like puncturing the spare tire) that makes completing the process impossible. Ineffective and ineffecient.

Interesting Daniel denial. I was known the difference before but not in this much detail.

Thank You for this valuable post. In future, I will try to use both the words properly because I know difference between them.

I am sure this will be there.

-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire

I would say that is about right.

Thanks for sharing!!

my boss always use this example to explain diff. of effective and efficiency. nice post !

– Roshan Ahmed 🙂

That is exactly the difference between effective and efficient. Effective is about doing the “right” or “needed” job.

Efficient, on the other hand, is about doing the job “quickly” or “in the right manner”, regardless if the job is the right one to be done or not.

John is not doing the “needed” job, so he is not being effective. However, he is doing the cleaning job (even if this job is not needed) very quickly, so he is being efficient at doing such a job.

I do not understand how John is efficient, because he is doing an un-needed job.

I am having trouble following your logic.

You said: “Because, adding unnecessary steps to a process does not mean efficiency!”

I would say that adding unnecessary steps to a process will make it inefficient (and it has nothing to do with effectiveness).

You also said: “An efficient person/process need not to be effective every time, but to be effective you should be efficient in execution of process.”

I don’t agree with this. To be effective you don’t necessarily need to be efficient in the execution of the process, as my example above illustrated.

I would say that if you pay and the person changes it correctly and quickly, you are being effective (regardless of how much you paid).

If you pay a low price for the service, on the other hand, you are being efficient (regardless of how well the service will be done).

If you pay a low price and the service gets done correctly and quickly, you are being both effective and efficient.

This is cool that you are sharing this. Sometimes you hear people use the words in wrong context. I have to point them to this post. I have a question.

How about if you pay someone to change the tire? Are you being efficient and effective?

Chat with you later…
Josh