What's Productivity?

Productivity is traditionally measured as the rate of output per unit of input, but the metric falls short when it leads to employee burnout, environmental disasters, or similar counter-productive side effects: the way we calculate productivity is at best incomplete, at worst erroneous.

I am reminded of Fukuoka’s words: “Before researchers become researchers, they should become philosophers. They should consider what the human goal is, what it is that humanity should create. Doctors should first determine at the fundamental level what it is that human beings depend on for life.”

We work for a reason. Productivity in the context of such work cannot be merely quantitative. It has to be qualitative first, answering the question: “How well do we perform our work in relation to its environment?”

Productivity is self-nourishing, rather than self-destructive. It doesn’t deplete over time. Instead, each iteration cycle brings its own improvements.

Productivity is self-satisfying. It is process-based, rather than outcome-based. The process brings joy to the worker instead of dehumanizing him. The ends do not always justify the means.

Productivity is subjective and personal. It is not measured the exact same way from one person to another, but it rests on the same needs—namely, self-actualization, esteem, and love and belonging.