A Fresh Look
at Productivity for Knowledge Workers
by
Mohammed Ali Vakil
In my work as a productivity coach and consultant, I’m seeing a
shift in how people are thinking about productivity. Yes, organizations are seeking to become more productive, but
they also realize there’s more to being productive than just working harder and
producing more.
So what is productivity?
The dictionary definition of productivity is
“
A measure of the efficiency of
a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful
outputs.”
It’s useful if we were in the industrial era where the goal of
the factory & businesses is to efficiently produce more output with the
least resources.
But translating this into knowledge workers, more is not better.
More can become:
* Tiring
* Exhausting
* Frustrating
* Stressful
* Energy-sucking
We’ve experienced that our best work doesn’t come from operating
in these states.
“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your
ability to relax.” -
David Allen
Applying the old definition of productivity to knowledge workers
is like getting them to run on a treadmill to reach some desired destination,
but never getting there.
So let’s ask another question. What are we really after?
What we’re really after is to channel our creativity to the best
choice we can make in the moment that aligns with our purpose (or
Organization’s purpose).
Knowledge workers do their best when they can access their
creativity & intuition.
//
How do we get to this level of
productivity?
Let’s start with understand what work is. When you think of your
work, what comes to mind?
Do you see it as a series of incomplete actions that need to get
done?
And do you get stressed when you think about them because of
competing priorities, surprises, interruptions and deadlines?
This is how most people look at work.
I want to invite you to look at work differently.
Think
of work as “flow”.
When work is flow, there is a start and end to it. It starts
with a “thought” and ends with a “desired outcome”. For example, you may have
an idea to write a blog post and
the
desired
outcome of “publishing a blog post”.
However
,
thought
to
the
desired outcome
is not instant. Starting with
a Next Action It needs to go through a series of steps till the desired outcome
is reached.
If publishing a blog post is the desired outcome, it’s probably
preceded by drafting an outline, finding an image, submitting it for review and
finally publishing it.
So if work is flow, what are the blocks that come in your way of
getting things done?
*
Y
ou forget the thought of
what you were supposed to work on
* You know what you have to
work on, but you procrastinate
* You don’t remember to take
action at the right time.
* You’re not able to focus on
the action
* Not clear on the desired
outcome
This may be for just one of your commitments. While you have several
commitments at any given time
