Many years ago, in a galaxy far far away, I used to work in a Big Four firm.  This was probably the worst time in my life, but that's another post for another day.  The Big Four are a prestigious set of assurance & consulting firms that have a four-way lock on the Fortune 500 Assurance market.  The corporate culture in these firms is an atrocity. 

Beyond the conventional cut throat, cubicle farm ideologies so indicative of the typical corporate aura, the management of these firms exude an embarrassingly obtuse comprehension of productivity.  What is their logical misstep you ask?  They directly correlate Time Spent with Value Added.  In other words, some preppy, clean shaven kiss ass who gets can sit intently in front of his computer for 15 hours a day during busy season and without thought or analysis, his Time Spent is made synonymous with Value Added.

Our idea of Productivity matters.  The amount of hours you spend with your face glued to your laptop screen is NOT indicative of your productivity.  At the Big Four, the street smart kids quickly realized this poignant reality.  The firm billed out on the basis of hours booked.  They made their money on the amount of Time Spent, not on Value Added.  So during "busy season" you were going to be sitting in the same room for 15 hours a day whether you actually did anything or not.  It is a vicious cycle of misplaced value association.  Most of us would sit there, laptops churning, looking attentive, tippity tapping at our keys all day, all the while 30 - 40% of the day, we'd be just be surfin the interwebs.  Why did we do this?  To satiate "face time" , of course.  Even if you work twice as efficient as your co-workers, you can't be the one to leave early, take a two hour break midday to get a second wind, or bill out less than your colleagues because if you do, you can kiss your bonus and your reputation bye-bye.

Here's some simple math for you: Time Spent does not equal Value Added.  

Oh, so you work until 2am everyday.  Congratu-freaking-lations!  You've just won a shiny gold watch.  Do you think that makes you productive? No. No, it doesn't.  In fact, it probably means you cannot manage time effectively and you spend a great deal of hours doing things at half speed because you're tired or busted.

Here's some difficult math for you: Value Added equals X

That's right, instead of taking your ques from Henry Ford and Ronald McDonald, you need to spend some time (and I mean serious time) figuring out what exactly would constitute adding value for your organization, team, small business or solo practice on a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily basis.  

Looking at time spent on things is the easy way out.  It's the Least Common Denominator and that's not you.  Or at least it shouldn't be.

If you manage staff, treat them like people and not like well paid cattle.  People are smart.  If your staff feels like they are being branded and evaluated based on the hours they sink into projects rather than the value they add, they'll give you exactly what you are asking for ... "empty calorie" hours.  You don't want that.  You want dense hours.  If your people are going to sit down to work, you want them to be as productive as possible while they do that, so they can enjoy their lives and not return tomorrow disgruntled and miserable, ruing the day of your conception.

Over the past year, we have hired four staff.  Want to know the first thing I said to all of them?  "I don't give a damn how many hours you work".  We sit down and collaboratively define what their role is and how value would be measured and use that as our barometer.

Honestly, its one of the reasons I heart workshifting. A "Value Added" paradigm is built into it.

How do you define productivity?  How do you value your staff's productivity?

Photo by: Menage a Moi