Creating value

# Chapter 196

But lets drill down even farther. What does productive really mean? Not busy as we have already discussed. Productive means that the task has been finished, completed, that the work has been done, that what needed to be created or done or tackled has been, and that a tangible measurable something exists now whereas it did not before. There is a large scale to this meaning. If your responsibility is herding people, then what accomplished completed finished productivity looks like for you, is very different than Kevin my mail carrier. Kevin’s is super concrete - when all the mail is delivered I am done. Herding is less concrete and defined. Thus for those who work in the more abstract worlds of work, the “to-do” list is far too similar to “busy” to be of much help in defining productivity.

I too work in the very abstract world of ideas and sometimes people. There are few ways to measure productivity. Saying that I talked with Dr. Singfiel yesterday about what is going on in Eastern Europe is not measuring anything other than the shell of a task. No, instead you have to define the quality of the interaction before you have an accurate measurement of productive. Just showing up for my zoom is not enough, unless you are measuring busy, and only other busy people would be interested in that. What you are really wanting and needing to measure is value.

Creating value is real productivity. Regardless where you are on the concrete abstract scale of work, creating value is the undergirding foundation you can always build upon. Here at The Leadership Development Group we always ask ourselves every day, after every conversation and task, “what value did I bring to this situation?” Its a brutal question, and a life-giving one. Try it sometime.