I recently did a talk and during the session I used the word “productivity,” and I immediately cringed at the same time.
I heard myself use a word that has somewhat become work-jargon in my perspective.
Is it about being busy, answering emails quickly, completing task after task.
The simple answer might be, yes.
It made me think about a journey I have recently been on and often, those of us who are on this journey talking about moving forward.
And, yes, I do believe I have been moving forward enough though at times it has been extremely difficult on a personal level.
I realized at that moment, aside from my personal life, I have always strived to move things forward everywhere I worked.
And, I have endeavoured to help my clients do the same.
From my experience, organizations do well not only when tasks are completed, yet when plans turn into action, decisions help garner good results and problems are addressed and even solved.
This to me is forward movement and is essential for well-functioning workplaces.
One of the most common challenges I have come across in organizations is maintaining the status quo for extended periods of time.
This lends to an environment where nothing changes when change is needed or things and people even regress.
All this to say, for me, it is less about productivity and more about asking, what has moved forward this week?
This is progress and this is what lends to good results for the people, clients and organization.
If you need to, start with even just step 1, step, step, step is what I did to be able to move forward.