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Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize
[winner] in economics, once wrote:

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"Productivity is not everything,
but in the long run,

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it is almost everything."

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So this is serious.

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There are not that many things on earth
that are almost everything.

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Productivity is the principal driver
of the prosperity of a society.

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So we have a problem.

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In the largest European economies,

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productivity used to grow
five percent per annum

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in the '50s, '60s, early '70s.

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From '73 to '83: three percent per annum.

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From '83 to '95: two percent per annum.

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Since 1995: less than
one percent per annum.

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The same profile in Japan.

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The same profile in the US,

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despite a momentary rebound 15 years ago,

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and despite all
the technological innovations

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around us: the internet, the information,

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the new information
and communication technologies.

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When productivity grows
three percent per annum,

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you double the standard of living
every generation.

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Every generation is twice
as well-off as its parents'.

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When it grows one percent per annum,

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it takes three generations
to double the standard of living.

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And in this process, many people
will be less well-off then their parents.

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They will have less of everything:

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smaller roofs, or perhaps no roof at all.

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Less access to education, to vitamins,
to antibiotics, to vaccination --

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to everything.

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Think of all the problems
that we're facing at the moment.

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All.

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Chances are that they are rooted
in the productivity crisis.

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Why this crisis?

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Because the basic tenets
about efficiency -- effectiveness

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in organizations, in management --

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have become counterproductive
for human efforts.

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Everywhere in public services --
in companies, in the way we work,

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the way we innovate, invest --
try to learn to work better.

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Take the holy trinity of efficiency:

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Clarity, measurement, accountability.

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They make human efforts derail.

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There are two ways
to look at it, to prove it.

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One, the one I prefer,

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is rigorous, elegant, nice -- math.

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But the full math version
takes a little while,

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so there is another one.

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It is to look at a relay race.

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This is what we will do today.

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It's a bit more animated, more visual,
and also faster -- it's a race.

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Hopefully, it's faster.

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(Laughter)

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World Championship Final: Women.

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Eight teams in the final.

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The fastest team is the US team.

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They have the fastest women on earth.

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They are the favorite team to win.

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Notably, if you compare them
to an average team,

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say, the French team,

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(Laughter)

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based on their best performance
in the 100-meter race,

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if you add the individual times
of the US runners,

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they arrive at the finish line
3.2 meters ahead of the French team.

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And this year, the US team
is in great shape.

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Based on their best performance this year,

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they arrive 6.4 meters
ahead of the French team,

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based on the data.

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We are going to look at the race.

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At some point you will see,
towards the end,

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that Torri Edwards,
the fourth US runner, is ahead.

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Not surprising; this year she got
the gold medal in the 100-meter race.

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And by the way, Chryste Gaines,
the second runner in the US team,

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is the fastest woman on earth.

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So, there are 3.5 billion women on earth.

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Where are the two fastest? On the US team.

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And the two other runners
on the US team are not bad, either.

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(Laughter)

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So clearly, the US team has won
the war for talent.

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But behind, the average team
is trying to catch up.

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Let's watch the race.

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(Video: French sportscasters narrate race)

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(Video: Race narration ends)

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Yves Morieux: So what happened?

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The fastest team did not win;
the slower one did.

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By the way, I hope you appreciate

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the deep historical search I did
to make the French look good.

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(Laughter)

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It's not art, but let's not exaggerate --
it's not archeology, either.

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(Laughter)

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But why?

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Because of cooperation.

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When you hear this sentence:

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"Thanks to cooperation, the whole
is worth more than the sum of the parts."

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This is not poetry;
this is not philosophy.

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This is math.

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Those who carry the baton are slower,

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but their baton is faster.

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Miracle of cooperation:

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it multiplies energy,
intelligence in human efforts.

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It is the essence of human efforts:

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How we work together, how each effort
contributes to the efforts of others.

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With cooperation,
we can do more with less.

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Now, what happens to cooperation
when the holy grail --

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the holy trinity, even --

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of clarity, measurement, accountability --

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appears?

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Clarity.

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Management reports are full of complaints
about the lack of clarity.

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Compliance audits,
consultants' diagnostics.

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We need more clarity, we need
to clarify the roles, the processes.

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It is as though the runners
on the team were saying,

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"Let's be clear -- where does my role
really start and end?

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Am I supposed to run for 95 meters,
96, 97, 9_ ... ?"

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It's important, let's be clear.

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If you say 97, after 97 meters,

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people will drop the baton, whether
there is someone to take it or not.

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Accountability.

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We are constantly trying
to put accountability

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in someone's hands.

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"Who is accountable for this process?

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We need somebody accountable
for this process."

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So in the relay race,
since passing the baton is so important,

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then we need somebody
clearly accountable for passing the baton.

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So between each runner,

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now we will have a new dedicated athlete,

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clearly dedicated to taking
the baton from one runner,

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and passing it to the next runner.

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And we will have at least two like that.

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Well, will we, in that case, win the race?

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That I don't know, but for sure,

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we would have a clear interface,

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a clear line of accountability.

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We will know who to blame.

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But we'll never win the race.

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If you think about it,
we pay more attention

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to knowing who to blame in case we fail,

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than to creating
the conditions to succeed.

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All the human intelligence
put in organization design --

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urban structures, processing systems --

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what is the real goal?

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To have somebody guilty in case they fail.

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We are creating
organizations able to fail,

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but in a compliant way,

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with somebody clearly
accountable when we fail.

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And we are quite effective
at that -- failing.

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Measurement.

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What gets measured gets done.

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Look, to pass the baton,
you have to do it at the right time,

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in the right hand, at the right speed.

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But to do that, you have to put
energy in your arm.

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This energy that is in your arm
will not be in your legs.

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It will come at the expense
of your measurable speed.

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You have to shout early enough
to the next runner

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when you will pass the baton,
to signal that you are arriving,

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so that the next runner
can prepare, can anticipate.

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And you have to shout loud.

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But the blood, the energy
that will be in your throat

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will not be in your legs.

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Because you know, there are
eight people shouting at the same time.

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So you have to recognize the voice
of your colleague.

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You cannot say, "Is it you?"

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Too late!

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(Laughter)

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Now, let's look at the race
in slow motion,

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and concentrate on the third runner.

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Look at where she allocates her efforts,

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her energy, her attention.

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Not all in her legs -- that would
be great for her own speed --

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but in also in her throat,
arm, eye, brain.

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That makes a difference in whose legs?

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In the legs of the next runner.

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But when the next runner runs super-fast,

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is it because she made a super effort,

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or because of the way
the third runner passed the baton?

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There is no metric on earth
that will give us the answer.

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And if we reward people on the basis
of their measurable performance,

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they will put their energy,
their attention, their blood

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in what can get measured; in their legs.

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And the baton will fall and slow down.

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To cooperate is not a super effort,

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it is how you allocate your effort.

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It is to take a risk,

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because you sacrifice
the ultimate protection

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granted by objectively measurable
individual performance.

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It is to make a super difference
in the performance of others,

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with whom we are compared.

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It takes to be stupid to cooperate, then.

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And people are not stupid;
they don't cooperate.

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You know, clarity, accountability,
measurement were OK

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when the world was simpler.

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But business has become
much more complex.

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With my teams, we have measured

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the evolution of complexity
in the business.

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It is much more demanding today
to attract and retain customers;

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to build advantage on a global scale;

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to create value.

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And the more the business gets complex,

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the more, in the name of clarity,
accountability, measurement,

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we multiply structures,
processes, systems.

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You know, this drive for clarity
and accountability triggers

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a counterproductive multiplication
of interfaces, middle offices,

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coordinators, that do not only
mobilize people and resources,

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but that also add obstacles.

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And the more complicated the organization,

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the more difficult it is to understand
what is really happening.

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So we need summaries, proxies, reports,

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key performance indicators, metrics.

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So people put their energy
in what can get measured,

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at the expense of cooperation.

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And as performance deteriorates,

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we add even more structure,
process, systems.

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People spend their time in meetings,

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writing reports they have
to do, undo, and redo.

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Based on our analysis,
teams in these organizations

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spend between 40 and 80 percent
of their time wasting their time,

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but working harder and harder,
longer and longer,

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on less and less value-adding activities.

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This is what is killing productivity,

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what makes people suffer at work.

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Our organizations are wasting
human intelligence.

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They have turned against human efforts.

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When people don't cooperate,

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don't blame their mindsets,
their mentalities, their personality --

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look at the work situations.

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Is it really in their personal interest
to cooperate or not,

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if, when they cooperate,
they are individually worse off?

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Why would they cooperate?

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When we blame personalities

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instead of the clarity,
the accountability, the measurement,

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we add injustice to ineffectiveness.

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We need to create organizations

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in which it becomes individually useful
for people to cooperate.

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Remove the interfaces,
the middle offices --

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all these complicated
coordination structures.

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Don't look for clarity; go for fuzziness.

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Fuzziness overlaps.

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Remove most of the quantitative metrics
to assess performance.

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Speed the "what."

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Look at cooperation, the "how":

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How did you pass the baton?

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Did you throw it,
or did you pass it effectively?

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Am I putting my energy
in what can get measured --

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my legs, my speed --
or in passing the baton?

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You, as leaders, as mangers,

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are you making it individually useful
for people to cooperate?

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The future of our organizations,

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our companies, our societies,

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hinges on your answer to these questions.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)