I believe it is a compliment to be described as efficient – doing more with less, taking less time, less money, less fuss to do the same thing as someone else. Can it be a negative though?

When studying business, I was intrigued by the concept of sub-optimisation, where one part of the process is super efficient, at the expense of the overall process. I used to explain this to my students through the example of washing and drying the dishes with my sister. She was quicker at washing the dishes than I was at drying and putting them away, so a bottleneck often formed, which resulted in slowing of the overall process as there would be less room for wet dishes.

If the dish washing task was slowed slightly, the drying rack would be free in time for wet dishes and while seemingly slower individually, the task as a whole would be quicker and easier.

In organsiations, individual departments may be super-efficient, but their relative efficiency may cause bottlenecks and delays for other departments. Looking at operations from a holistic perspective may be of value.