This is one of a set of posts on common misconceptions about productivity and work. I call them Lies About Productivity. I’ll address some ‘lie’ and suggest a new mindset that is helpful toward being effective, not exhausted – Do Busy Right.

• Productivity and managing tasks for employees and self-employed individuals.
  • Employees may falsely believe their productivity is their boss’s responsibility, neglecting personal growth.
  • Bosses don’t always prioritize employee productivity, and knowledge work has changed the way we think about productivity.
  • Some differences between knowledge work and physical work (see Episode 2)
• Evolution of work and organizations.
  • Adam Smith’s ideas on specialization of labor (250 years ago) continue to shape modern organizational thought.
  • Adam Smith observed that dividing tasks into smaller parts can increase productivity.
  • Work became more efficient with division of labor and introduction of machinery, but also constrained the work itself.
• Factory efficiency and worker productivity.
  • Henry Ford’s factory used specialization and machines to increase efficiency and reduce reliance on human labor.
  • How factory work became highly defined and standardized, with specific tasks and output targets for workers.
  • Management focused on motivation as a factor in productivity, as workers were expected to perform repetitive tasks for long periods of time.
• Management thought evolution and skill vs. motivation.
  • Early management focus was on motivation, with a distinction between motivational and skill problems.
  • Organizations must distinguish between motivation and skill issues when addressing underperformance.
  • How my kids cut grass.
• The current state of managerial and employee thought
  • Bosses tend to think they need to tell employees what to do. Employees tend to think that bosses will tell them what to do.
  • This ‘cultural contract’ is challenged by the nature of knowledge work, specifically:
  • Quality of knowledge work is hard to judge
  • Knowledge work processes are not observable. The boss can’t watch employees work.
  • The challenges of measuring progress and quality in knowledge work, where outputs are unobservable.
• Knowledge work challenges that state of thought and who needs to manage productivity.
  • the nature of knowledge work,
  • the bosses mindset around motivation,
  • the desire to ‘hire someone smarter than me’ and the challenges.
  • Managers struggle to manage knowledge workers due to:
  • So, knowledge workers must at least participate in managing their own productivity in modern organizations.
  • This requires a very close relationship with the boss.
• Symptoms of not managing your own productivity
  • Frustration over your ability to produce the right results.
  • Consistent frustration about quality leads to acceptance of stress as natural.
  • Stress has a high cost in the productivity of knowledge work.
  • Develop a productivity mindset by leading and managing yourself well, using tools to track work, and recognizing the limitations of stress as a motivator.
• Your new mindset about your productivity
  • Believe that you need to lead and manage yourself well – nobody else knows how.
  • You’ll need a system to manage yourself.
  • Understand that stress and associated deadlines are not good motivators, particularly in knowledge work.
• Results of your new mindset
  • Increasing levels of calmness and control
  • Leading to better focus and greater productivity.
• Tools you’ll need
  • Developing productivity conversations with boss to maintain trust and achieve results.
  • Tools for backlog creation and backlog management
  • Tools for capturing ideas and tasks
  • Reduce your reliance on traditional to-do list

Regardless of your status as an employee, contractor, or solopreneur, you need to take control of your own productivity. It matters more to you than to anyone else, including your boss.