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What Productivity Can’t Do

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We tend to seek out better productivity practices as a way of reducing our own stress and increasing our sense of personal satisfaction. We can assume that if we have the right tools, work ethic, and know-how, we can solve most of our problems. We subconsciously think that productivity itself will bring us inner peace and joy.

But in itself it’s not enough.

It’s a good thing to want to reduce our own stress and increase our satisfaction in our work. The problem is that those goals are insufficient. Our true purpose in improving our productivity should be to serve others. And, amazingly, this is the path to our deepest joy.

Here’s what Jonathan Edwards had to say on this (in Charity and Its Fruits):

If you are selfish, and make yourself and your own private interests your idol, God will leave you to yourself, and let you promote your own interests as well as you can.

But if you do not selfishly seek your own, but do seek the things that are Jesus Christ’s, and the things of your fellow human beings, then God will make your interest and happiness his own charge, and he is infinitely more able to provide for and promote it than you are. The resources of the universe move at his bidding, and he can easily command them all to subserve your welfare.

So not to seek your own, in the selfish sense, is the best way of seeking your own in a better sense. It is the directest course you can take to secure your highest happiness.

We Are All in Little League

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This week I started coaching little league baseball for the first time. My two boys are on the same team and we’re pretty excited around here.

But going into our first practice, I knew I better temper my expectations. Typical seven, eight, and nine-year-olds have hardly been on a baseball field, much less developed the fundamentals of playing the game. Hand-eye coordination is spotty and attention spans are short (we’re talking five minutes short at our first practice).

All baseball players at this age have major holes in their game. They might have 17 things wrong with their swing alone! But kids can’t fix 17 things at one time. So my plan is to focus on one or two things with each player. If I’m able to help them reduce 17 down to 15 by the end of the season, that’s progress. And then next year their coach can help them get down to 12 or 13.

If we’re honest, we are all in little league.

We are imperfect people with real limitations and real-world constraints, and the way we lead change or grow in any area is essentially the same way kids get better at hitting baseballs.

If we try to change everything at once, should we really expect to make meaningful progress?

How Do You Respond to Dissenting Opinions?

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Dissenting opinions are useful even when they’re wrong.

That’s the argument Adam Grant makes in one of his chapters in Originals:

“Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thought,” finds Berkeley psychologist Charlan Nemeth, one of the world’s leading experts on group decisions. “As a result, even when they are wrong they contribute to the detection of novel solutions and decisions that, on balance, our qualitatively better.”

When we have expertise in a particular area or more context than others or feel the need to move fast, it’s easy to discount dissenting opinions.  Or worse, to be threatened by them.

Humble confidence means truly listening to dissenting opinions, not shutting them down.

Coupling our confidence with humility honors others and (it shouldn’t be a surprise) leads to better results.

Business is Art

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workbench

This is a great perspective from Work the System by Sam Carpenter:

Who says art must include a canvas, sculpture, or musical instrument? Art is creativity, and is there a better example of a creative endeavor than the machinations of building a successful business? Indeed, business is art in its purest form! The painter and the musician shouldn’t scoff at the entrepreneur or corporate chief who must take hard, cold life – sights, sounds, events, things, people – and stir them into an efficient enough mixture to produce a successful business. Business is art. It’s a heroic undertaking, and with it lies two superb by-products: tangible value to others–employees and customers–and personal income for the creator.

Rescuing Ambition in the Workplace

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I think you’ll benefit from this excellent series of articles from Dave Harvey, author if Rescuing Ambition (also highly recommended!).

This is how Dave introduces his series on ambition in the workplace:

A few years ago I wrote the book Rescuing Ambition and called for a rescue. I wanted to  snatch ambition from the heap of failed motivations and put it to work for the glory of God. I wanted Christians to realize that to understand our ambition, we must understand that we are on a quest for glory. And where we find glory determines the success of our quest. Since I wrote that book, many suggested that I address God’s design for ambition in the workplace and in one’s daily calling. 

Here are the links to Dave’s multi-part series, “Rescuing Ambition in the Workplace”: Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

 

Productivity Tip: Start with Simple

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Here’s a project for you: go build a smart phone this weekend.

I’ll give you some parts and some tools. You can pull from the internet if you want. And we’ll help you keep the distractions away. How do you think your project will turn out?

If you’re like most people, it’s going to be an unmitigated disaster. Why?  Because it’s virtually impossible to build a complex system from scratch.

Productivity Complexity

If you’re new to thinking about productivity and personal effectiveness, you may be surprised by how complex the whole subject can be.

There’s the theology piece. There’s the motivation piece. There’s weekly planning and workflow management and a hundred digital tools that might help you. You have different roles, specific strengths, and personal passions…

Then, as soon as you make some progress fitting the pieces together for you, you realize that you better figure out how your personal system fits (or doesn’t fit) with your colleagues. It doesn’t matter how “effective” your system is if you can’t work with others to be truly productive.

All this complexity can keep you from getting started.

The good news is you don’t have to jump in to the deep end of the productivity pool.

Start with Simple

Today’s tip is simply to “start with simple.”

This comes from Gall’s Law, named after John Gall, a systems theorist who wrote the book Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail. It goes like this:

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: a complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a simple system.

So, permission granted to start simple.

Simplicity is incredibly powerful in how it allows you to get started and in what it makes possible down the line.

A Few Simple Places to Start

Hope for Those Who Feel Totally Unproductive

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Job loss, economic downturns, illness, accidents, and a host of other difficult circumstances mean that at some point most of us will face something beyond a typical productivity challenge. We will have times when we’ll be seemingly unable to get much done at all that feels “productive.”

If you’re in a situation like that, take hope in the truth that you can be faithful wherever you are, however meager your energy and resources seem to be.

The book of Revelation, for example, teaches that faithfulness is the means by which we overcome the world and obtain victory. Christ specifically emphasizes this in his letters to the churches in chapters 2 and 3 in relation to those who are powerless and seemingly unable to do anything:

  • “I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich).” – Revelation 2:9
  • “I know you that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” – Revelation 3:8

You can be poor in this world, and yet utterly rich before Christ (Revelation 2:9). You can be utterly powerless in this world, and yet highly regarded by Christ (Revelation 3:8). This is true riches.

Trusting in him and obeying his commands is the essence of what God requires, and you can do this wherever you are and in whatever condition you are in.

No matter what your situation, you can look to God (Psalm 18:6), you can pray for the spread of the gospel among all nations (Matthew 6:9-10), you can be kind to the people who cross your path (1 Corinthians 13:5), and you can point them to your hope in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). “Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God” (Isaiah 50:10).

And, no matter what situation you’re in, you can pray. You can do more through prayer than you can imagine. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think…to him be glory” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

If you can pray, you can change the world.

Collaboration is More than “Everyone Plays Their Part”

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You’re likely working with other people to produce or create something this week.

God has put us in this together—different skills and experiences coming together to accomplish way more than we could accomplish on our own.

As Christians, we understand this at a foundational level. We know the call to use our different gifts to serve as “good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10). Or how, in the body of Christ, “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you'” (1 Corinthians 12:21).

We believe deeply in coming together for a common mission, and we want the benefits that come from strong collaboration, whether in our church or our workplace.

But in practice we can miss out. More than that, we can experience tension or even conflict with our teammates when we approach “teamwork” or “collaboration” in different ways without realizing it.

As I’ve led and worked in different teams over the years, I’ve noticed two basic levels of collaboration and the challenges that come when we apply collaboration differently.

Here’s what I mean:

Level 1 collaboration looks something like this: 
  • “Everyone needs to play their part for us to do this well.”
  • “I’m responsible for making this decision.”
  • “You do this, I’ll do that, and together we can make a big difference.”
Level 2 collaboration, on the other hand, looks more like this:
  • “You’ve only been here a few weeks, but I really want your perspective.”
  • “Can I suggest another way to think about it before we make that policy shift?”
  • “I read about this new software. Wanted to make sure you knew about it…”
  • “That’s my idea. How can we make this stronger?”

We can limit our productivity as a team if we operate solely in Level 1. And we can actually be counter-productive when some of the team are operating in the former and others are aiming for the latter.

Level 1 collaboration has it’s place, but don’t settle for that. Level 2 collaboration is where the really good stuff happens.

Productivity Tip: Counteracting Groupthink in Meetings

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In our organizations today, we spend significant time conducting and participating in meetings. This isn’t all bad, of course, as good meetings hold the potential for generating new ideas, aligning teams around a common purpose, and moving projects forward.

But when it comes to collaborative meetings, there are some common obstacles that hinder team productivity. The tendency of groupthink, for example. Or assuming that a more experienced colleague has the best idea (or the other way around). Or the respected leader who gives their opinion too soon, affecting the freedom others feel to share their perspective.

Today’s productivity tip is for the leader who’s aware of such tendencies and wants to avoid them. 

This comes from Daniel Kahneman’s popular book Thinking Fast and Slow. In a chapter on jumping to conclusions, Kahneman writes: 

Before an issue is discussed, all members of the committee should be asked to write a very brief summary of their position. This procedure makes good use of the value of the diversity of knowledge and opinion in the group. The standard practice of open discussion gives too much weight to the opinions of those who speak early and assertively, causing others to line up behind them.

I think this is really wise, even if it wouldn’t make sense in every meeting context.

If you’re responsible for facilitating meetings, try weaving something like this in where you can, especially for strategic planning, creative brainstorming, and other meetings where you need to leverage the gifts of the whole team.

We want the best ideas to win out, not just those that come from the most senior, the most confident, or the most savvy.

Creating a Business Plan that Actually Works

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Thanks to the many of you who have been so encouraging as we announced the launch of What’s Best Next. You emails and shares have been meaningful.

We hope you’ll stick around to benefit from the things we have planned, and to help us refine the resources and services. None of this makes sense if people like you aren’t inspired and helped.

Creating a Business Plan that Actually Works

One of the things we’re looking to do, in addition to developing many free resources, is to publish, over time, focused books for helping Christians be more effective in their work.

Creating_A_Business_Plan_COVERThe one we started with, which seemed to make sense given what we were already working on, is a short digital book called Creating a Business Plan that Actually Works: Especially, But Not Only, for Faith-Based Organizations.

With a title like that, and given that What’s Best Next is a mere three days old, I would expect at least a snicker or two! But here’s the deal: this e-book is not about guaranteeing a level of success, however you measure it. It’s about a process that does what it’s intended to do—a framework that can make a significant difference as you plan any kind of real-world endeavor.

Whether you’re launching a new business, starting a ministry, planning an event, or managing a project of a certain size or scope, this short e-book can help guide you in thinking through your plans. Matt originally wrote this a few years ago and we’ve updated several sections in light of working through the vision for What’s Best Next.

 Here’s what you’ll find in Creating a Business Plan that Actually Works: 

  1. How Do You Think Biblically About Business Plans?
  2. Making Business Plans Useful: A Brief Overview
  3. The Elements of a Business Plan (And Getting Them Right)
  4. Further Resources

This focused book is especially for those who are making plans from a Christian perspective—whether in churches, ministries, other non-profits, or anywhere else. While you don’t have to operate from a specifically Christian perspective to benefit, it will be especially helpful for those looking for a resource that makes the integration of faith and work explicit.

Available for download from WhatsBestNext.com or Amazon.com