Wow Joie, I love how gorgeous and concise this topic is. I think you really hit the nail on the head when it comes to the nuance of what this word has come to mean under capitalism, and what it could come to mean for us.
I also have a deep desire to move away from the way our society (regardless of the cause) uses “productivity” as a way to reduce us to how much we as individuals can trade our bodies, our passion, our talent, our skills and knowledge, our priorities to the ends of financial maximization of corporations and the mega wealthy; in exchange for the right to keep living (out of poverty if you’re lucky). It’s no wonder we’ve connected our ability for alienated production to our moral right to live.
The system we currently live in has almost no interest in finding the ways in which we naturally strive to create, our core strengths/talents, our personal priorities, or what inspires the light of passion within us to provoke our productivity. I think the book I just finished reading called “First Break All the Rules” has a lot of wisdom to offer on this topic in particular.
It’s a book about what it means to be an exceptional manager, and as it turns out, all great managers turn away from the “conventional wisdom” of capitalism and the work place. The role of a truly great manager is indeed concerned with productivity, with performance, but the way they approach building performance in their employees is so much more in line with how I think we want to operate.
An exceptional manager’s job is to understand that talent is something that lives within us* and is essentially not changeable. (Learn more about talents/skills/knowledge in my other topic). Therefore we should be identifying the unique talents of every individual, abandon trying to make a person “fix” their weaknesses, and then defining clear outcomes of performance that directly utilize their talents/strengths.
A managers job is to turn talent into excellence through consistent performance. The way they do this is by casting roles by talent, defining the right outcomes, focusing on strengths (managing around weakness), and finding the right fit. They put people into roles they can naturally excel at, they make it clear that performance (productivity) is essential and define what that means in the context of their role and their talents. They’re finding the ways they can support their employees around their weaknesses, turning them into mere nontalents that don’t interfere with performance, and pushing their people to do the kind of self-reflection required to find true excellence, expertise, and passion in their work.
This is a bit of a ramble, but I think that redefining productivity in these terms (in addition to training up/bringing in some excellent managers) will be crucial to our goals for the year of not only being a loving and wholehearted community, but also being that community who gets shit DONE with a fierce joy and passion.
I truly believe that if we do it correctly, with the right focuses, we’ll be able to take productivity and put it to work for the deep self-discovery and empassioning of every SourceCred participant.
. * while talent is something you can technically develop from scratch through great effort, time, and striving (because of the incredible neuroplasticity of the human brain); it’s not something a manager should try to do to their employees. That kind of change requires a deep and personal commitment from an individual who is ready to choose themselves and devote years of effort to changing their most basic filters for the world. That’s not the kind of thing another person (like their manager) can choose for them, and isn’t something a manager should be trying to do. It’s much smarter, more practical, and less demoralizing for everyone involved if a manager works with, encourages, and supports the talents (4 lane highways in the brain) that already exist within someone.