It’s time to change how we talk about productivity
Creating an empowered, high-performing team means redefining productivity from inputs to impact
What does the term “productivity” mean to you? What words or emotions does it evoke when you hear it?
Productivity, to me, is the impact or progress you make towards a greater, purposeful objective. Individually, it feels like an engaging conversation that sparks an idea; focused time to write code, do research or create a model; or taking the time to learn a new skill or technique. Collectively, productivity looks like meeting the objectives your organization set for itself, whether it’s financial, operational or cultural.
On its own, productivity is not a bad word or idea. Both personally and professionally, it can provide a great barometer to gauge how you’re doing towards your goals. But the ways we currently think about productivity, especially in the United States, are rigid, emotionally taxing and antithetical to the ingredients that make up a high-performing team. It’s an idea that’s been hijacked and weaponized by hustle culture, influencers hawking an “If I can do it so can you” snake oil, and leaders who prioritize the short-term over the long-term.
As we consider the ways in which workplace expectations are changing, and the spiking demand we’re seeing for courageous and disruptive leaders, now more than ever we need to re-evaluate the ways we define and measure productivity.
In the U.S., obsession with productivity is heavily tied to our Puritan roots. Without getting too deep into the theology and history, the Puritan colonizers of the U.S. believed that a person’s worth in the eyes of God was intertwined with how much they worked. Leisure was frowned upon and considered laziness. This philosophy helped shape the early outlook on productivity and structures of work in the U.S. Then, the Industrial Revolution supercharged the way we glorify productivity — it created a whole field of study around optimizing productivity to produce as much value and profit as possible. Workers, just like machines, were considered resources to be maximized, with leisure and down time seen as wasteful. This way of thinking migrated from the manufacturing floor to the office and continues to influence how we structure our workplaces today.
It’s important to note here that knowledge/office work is fundamentally different from rote work like the kind you’d find on an assembly line; therefore, it must be measured differently. Knowledge work is often more abstract and less regimented than industrial work, making it more difficult to measure with traditional markers like hours worked or quantity of output. It doesn’t really make sense to create a dashboard that includes “marketing ideas generated per day”.
From inputs to impact
Considering in pretty much every knowledge work discipline, from engineering to marketing to IT, we regularly give our teams a charge to innovate, to come up with new products, services and techniques, we should probably tie our measures of success to maximize the ingredients that are actually proven to promote innovation. Rather than using hours-shown-green-on-Teams per day, days in the office, meetings attended, or emails sent to measure an individual’s productivity, we need to empower leaders/managers to measure impact, outcomes and quality against individual, project and team goals.
Will this require more up-front effort to clearly define what “impact” or “quality” look like? Absolutely.
Will it be tougher to quantify and therefore not easily summarized into a beautiful executive-level dashboard? Probably.
But doing this up-front work will also create more engaged employees and teams because it will empower the individual to take ownership of their work.
I’ve talked about agency before, the desire for choice and control that all humans have — and that plays a huge role in productivity. When we adapt the ways we measure productivity — from arbitrary inputs of presence and busyness to impact, outcomes and quality — we give employees more agency to decide how the work gets done. These employees will, in turn, have the latitude to think creatively and work deeply, not feeling anxious about whether they’ve met their eight hours or like they have to engage in performative productivity theater.
In short, putting in the effort to create better productivity measures leads to more purposeful, higher quality work and happier, more effective employees.
Redefining productivity: a measure of impact, outcomes and quality against your goals
So, if you’re a leader who wants to create an empowered and high-performing team culture, re-evaluate the way you define and measure productivity. I challenge you to think deeply about what is truly important in the work your team does. Is there a heavy emphasis on novel ideas? Or is it about getting as many “units of work” (app features, tickets, blog posts, etc.) completed and out the door as possible? How can the nature and goals of the work shape the way it’s done, when it’s done and how it’s measured?
Disrupting a deeply-rooted (albeit narrow) understanding of productivity is no easy feat. But consider that challenging the traditional measures of productivity shows courage, and courage is a function of leadership. Even by asking “Is there a better way to do this?”, you are being a disruptive leader who prioritizes showing up for your team and designing an environment optimal for its success.
Further reading on productivity
Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
A wonderful book that debunks the “laziness lie”, which tricks all of us into believing we’re not working hard enough
Deep Work by Cal Newport
A guide to working with more focus and intention in a world dominated by noise
Hustle & Float by Rahaf Harfoush
A history of humans’ relationship to creativity, and a look at how our modern work structures actually prevent truly creative work
Slack’s “State of Work 2023” report
One more timely note as we talk about productivity and the future of work. Slack recently released its latest “State of Work” report that surveyed more than 18,000 knowledge workers for a pulse on the employee experience. The top insight? “We need to redefine productivity”. They found a wide disparity between how executives measure productivity and how employees actually practice it.
The conversation about productivity is more urgent than ever for leaders!
Read the full report here.
I’m a Certified Executive Coach and Future of Work Advisor. I help forward-thinking leaders make disruptive impacts in their careers, build best-in-class cultures and foster a people-first, human workplace.
Learn more about working with me and explore my toolkit for leaders