Redefining the Paradigm of Productivity For The Future of Work

Most people I know are constantly looking for the best hacks, tips, tricks, and strategies to “increase productivity.”

It’s also become clear to me in recent years that most of these efforts are misguided because we lack a basic definition of what we’re striving for.

What is Productivity, Really?

When you say you want to be more productive, what do you mean?

The dominant definition of productivity in our culture is based on the literal meaning of the word: the sense of “producing things.”

As a concept, “productivity” is a fairly recent invention, stemming only from the era of factory production.

The common connotation of “productivity” is “output in a quantity of time.”

This makes sense if you’re working in a factory producing widgets on an assembly line. In that context, productivity is measured as “widgets per hour” or “widgets per day.”

Let’s work with this metric at face value for a moment.

Productivity in a Factory Setting

Increasing the output of widgets in a period of time isn’t necessarily linear result of making faster machines or adding more people to the assembly line.

There are various factors that might determine how many widgets you can produce per hour.

For example:

• How well is the machine operating? Is the motor running at its optimal speed, or is it slow because it’s been overheating because it’s been running nonstop?
• Do you have all the component pieces of the widgets you’re producing? What is happening upchain on the assembly line? Is there unnecessary friction in getting parts from one side of the factory to the other?
• What else is going on in the factory? Is there commotion inside or outside that is detracting attention of the factory workers, slowing down the process? How does the weather — humidity, storms, cold — impact the functioning of the machines?
• Are the systems set up for optimal output? Perhaps it’s assumed that if you keep the machines running all day, you’ll get more output per day. But what if the machines work more optimally if you run them for 2 hours then let them rest for an hour, then restart them?

Already we can see that even if you’re just producing widgets, there are a lot of factors involved to “optimize” productivity.

In the conversation around productivity, human beings often get mistaken for machines, as if we can just turn on and off at the flip of a switch. As this example shows, however, even if human beings were like machines, the process isn’t so simple.

Even if you do something basic that involves no emotional labor or creative output, you have many factors to navigate:

• Machine = your brain
• Component pieces = your resources
• Environment = your outer and inner environment: your thoughts and mindset
• Systems = your working rhythms

Even in a factory setting, “productivity” isn’t a linear metric.

Productivity in Knowledge Work

That said, many people today don’t even work in a “factory” setting.

What does it mean, in the context of your life, to be “productive?”

Much work today trades on ideas, knowledge, creativity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence.

Many have applied the term “knowledge work” to much of this modern work. Even within the realm of “knowledge work,” traditional notions of productivity fall short.

If you’re a lawyer writing a brief, the goal is not to churn out as many words as possible in an hour; it’s to write a coherent argument. Nobody is paying a lawyer to be a fast typist. They are paying for the quality of the argument that will win the case, or the negotiating skill to get a good deal.

If you’re building a website, your goal isn’t to build as many sites as you can in the shortest amount of time; it’s to create functional and easy-to-use sites. At least that’s what I would want as a client.

In the realm of creative knowledge work, AI can churn out content faster than humans can. But true creativity is an art that can’t replicated by machine. Personally, I don’t want to read AI content. I want to read human-generated content that moves me.

That said, the label of “knowledge work” might be a good label if you’re a writer, coder, marketer, or academic, but it’s a poor label for many industries.

Beyond Knowledge Work: Client-Focused Work

I started my career as a lawyer. Eventually, I left law to become a residential real estate broker. Over the past 17 years I’ve expanded my business to coaching, consulting, speaking, and training.

In my coaching practice, I regularly work with clients who are coaches, personal trainers, real estate agents, or full-time parents (also known as “stay at home parents”).

Putting aside the nature of the work involved, what all of these roles have in common is that they are client-service roles.

Client-focused work does trade, in part, on “knowledge” and ideas. It requires creativity, problem-solving skills, and the ability to “turn thoughts into value.” In this sense, it requires cognitive bandwidth.

But client-service work is different from client-focused work.

In addition to the “knowledge work,” component, client-service roles also require emotional labor: holding space for clients in their hours of need, being attuned to clients’ their needs and fears — even the ones they aren’t articulating — and helping clients identify and navigate their resistance.

Client-service roles require a certain amount of nurturing and emotional support. When you’re working with clients, you must show up in a particular way. You can’t have an “off” day where you “phone it in.” You can’t be in a bad mood. You can’t be lost in your own problems. You can’t be reactive.

Client-service professionals are space holders. They must be grounded: a source of stability and safety for their clients.

What Does Productivity Mean in Client-Service Roles?

The traditional definition of “productivity” falls short in knowledge work, and it completely fails in client-service work.

When it comes to human-focused work and client service, what does it mean to be productive?

If I’m working with a client, my time, ideas, and insights certainly have value. The results I help my client obtain are also important. But the greatest value is the quality of the space I hold, the energy I bring, and the level of attunement I have to my clients.

It’s that attunement and space-holding that creates the foundation for the results I help my clients obtain.

When you’re working in a client service role your product isn’t widgets or even your knowledge. It’s your time, attention, energy, and emotional attunement. It’s your caring and your ability to hold space. It’s your presence.

When you’re working in a client service role, your product isn’t widgets or even your knowledge.
It’s your time, attention, energy, and emotional attunement.
It’s your caring and your ability to hold space.
It’s your presence.

As the saying goes: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

When clients feel safe and nurtured, they have a base level foundation to expand their capacity, to take risks, and to show up with a greater force in their own lives.

A New Paradigm of Productivity

Productivity = Presence

AI can do a lot: it can converse with me about my workouts, give me programming, and help me talk through issues and ideas. It can do a decent job of editing drafts.

But AI cannot replace the emotional support that humans require to thrive. It cannot hear what I’m not saying; it can’t read my body language or intuit meaning based on my tone. It can’t look at me and know whether I’m having a bad day and need to take it easy.

It relies on the inputs that we give it, and we don’t always give it accurate information.

Human beings will always need the type of support that AI cannot provide, so client-service roles are here to stay.

We need to redefine a new paradigm of productivity in a way that makes sense for this future of work.

Productivity is presence: emotional attunement, attention, and the capacity to hold space.

Understanding what factors impact this — for better or worse — is at the heart of being more effective with our time, energy, attention, and emotion.