WHAT IS REAL PRODUCTIVITY?

7.17.11

The goal of the exercise is to identify a working definition of “productivity” that:

1. Resonates with our core audience

2. Is culturally relevant

3. Takes into consideration historical truths about the word itself

4. Produces strategic insights for our communications strategy

Success will be judged against these criteria, and our exploration will be guided by

it

Goal

Contents

Part 1 – Historical Imperatives

We’ll examine traditional definitions and historical tensions about productivity.

Part 2 – The Crisis In Productivity

We’ll examine how traditional definitions and a focus on short-term productivity gains have brought us into crisis.

Part 3 – The Intangible Age

We’ll examine how the age of information and the digital revolution are changing the definitions of what it is to be productive.

Part 4 – Innovations in Productivity

We’ll examine how new tools and thinkers are changing the way we think about productivity.

Part 5 – Generating Benefit Statements

We’ll create benefit statements from the consumer perspective on the value of productivity.

Part 6 – Mapping Our Statements

We’ll create four-quadrant axis and map our statements in relation to one another.

Part 7 – Mapping Our Competition

As part of a thought exercise, we’ll look at the smartphone market, map our competition and generate a strategic recommendation.

Our thinking will be in two parts

Part 1 – Historical Imperatives

We’ll examine traditional definitions and historical tensions about productivity.

Part 2 – The Crisis In Productivity

We’ll examine how traditional definitions and a focus on short term productivity gains have brought us into crisis.

Part 3 – The Intangible Age

We’ll examine how the age of information and the digital revolution are changing the definitions of what it is to be productive.

Part 4 – Innovations in Productivity

We’ll examine how new tools and thinkers are changing the way we think about productivity.

Part 5 – Generating Benefit Statements

We’ll create benefit statements from the consumer perspective on the value of productivity.

Part 6 – Mapping Our Statements

We’ll create and four quadrant axis and map our statements in relation to one another.

Part 7 – Mapping Our Competition

As part of a thought exercise we’ll look at the smartphone market, map our competition and generation a strategic

Productivity:

The rate at which goods or services are produced in relation

to units of labor.

Product:

An article or substance that is manufactured or refined for

sale.

Labor:

Physical or mental exertion toward a specific task.

Increased productivity:

Extracting maximum value from less units of labor (i.e., less

man hours or less workers).

Traditional Definitions

1. HISTORICAL IMPERITIVES

“History is philosophy teaching by examples. ”~Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War

The Pyramids didn’t build themselves

The history of productivity - that is to

say, extracting maximum value from less

units of labor - begins with the history of

slavery.

In a world with no machines, humans had

to fill the role with muscle, blood and

sweat. Complex cultural ideologies were

developed so that humans could subjugate

other humans in the service of societal

goals and projects.

To examine productivity is to face an ugly

truth: that actions that do not value

human well-being have nonetheless

driven short-term productivity gains

throughout history.

But how?

This system has continued for over 6,000 years…

“We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time

exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would

also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.”

Cecil John Rhodes, Founder of De Beers Diamond Company

(July 1853 – 26 March 1902)

Thousands of years have brought humankind three

deadly tools to boost productivity in the short term.

War: Maximizes an economy toward the efficient

production of materials.

Colonialism: The control of a nation over a dependent

country or people for the exploitation of natural

resources.

Slavery

Forced labor or wage slavery (such as child labor).

All are extraordinarily effective ways of extracting

maximum

value from units of labor for a short period of time.

A Child Laborer, New York City 1863

Historical tensions with productivity

The Cotton Gin helped eliminate an economic need for slavery in the Southern USA

Technological Shift

However, the Industrial Age created a new paradigm

whereby forcing higher levels of productivity from machines

became cheaper and more effective than subjugating other

human beings to do manual labor.

The definition of productivity during this time underwent its

first transition from being mainly concerned with human

power to being mainly about industrial machine power.

New Labor Laws

Of course, humans were still needed to operate

machines, so a new tension arose in regard to productivity.

how to maximize value from both humans and machines

working together.

But because machines were expensive to operate, costly to

fix and potentially hazardous, new labor laws were put into

place to maximize productivity by calculating some measure

of human health and well-being into day-to-day operations.

Technological Disruption

Welsh Factory Workers

This system has continued for over 6,000 years…Modern Tensions With Productivity

Maximizing The Tangible

Historically speaking, we’ve come to an extremely advanced

place of understanding on how we maximize human productivity

from a physical standpoint. We know precisely how many hours

humans need to sleep, eat and exercise to remain healthy. We

have a deeper understanding of training, information retention

and education. We have medicines to keep us healthy when

other precautions fail, and in the industrialized West we enjoy a

variety of employee safeguards and benefits which help plan for

retirement and accidents on the job.

Ignoring The True Costs

But productivity remains extremely contentious because the way

we measure it does not take into account emotional well-being

or, more importantly, the externalized and intangible costs of

production and labor which, over time, compound into large

problems for individuals and society as a whole.

Six thousand years of trial and error have revealed a fundamental

truth: what benefits the short term often is detrimental in the long

term.

2. CRISIS IN PRODUCTIVITY

“Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like

lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel

like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you feel the impact.”

U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, 2010

Traditional measurements of productivity

often ignores long-term costs

Robert is the firm’s top producer. He travels 80% of his time and finds it nearly

impossible to eat a low-sodium diet on the road. After 20 years of high

productivity, he has a heart attack that permanently disables him at the age of 50.

Maria is one of fastest workers on the assembly line but finds her job tedious and

works so many hours that her marriage collapsed. Over time she slips into a deep

depression and, despite being productive at work, takes her own life. She leaves

behind thousands in debts and a teenage daughter to her estranged husband.

Rodger is an extraordinarily productive athlete who constantly strives to improve. One

day a minor knee injury occurs, and Rodger ignores it in the spirit of being productive

for his team. On the last game of the season, a light tackle collapses his weak

knee, and he never plays again.

These real-life stories demonstrate that productivity, as judged by short-

term increases in speed or volume, can have serious consequences for

an individual.

But what about society as a whole?

• 97% of clothing is now produced outside USA

• Industrial manufacturing is set to decline 9% by

2018

• Electronics manufacturing is set to decline 19% by

2018

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

• 11% of U.S. Homes are now vacant

• Home sales are down 80% since 2005

• 2.87 Million houses repossessed

Sources: Business Insider, Bloomburg

• 19 consecutive years of glacier retreat

• 100 million people will be displaced by 2050

• Extinction of a million species by 2050

Sources: National Geographic,

World Glacier Monitoring Center

United Nations’ Panel on Climate Change

Individual acts to increase short-term productivity

compound to create collective problems.

Demandfor short term

productivity gains

causes

abundance…

Consequencessurface for the long term…

Problemsresult in a collective crisis…

Easy loans and House FlippingCheap wood products and fossil fuels Cheap, discounted garments

Housing bubble crash Global warming Manufacturing leaves USA

Blow-back noun /ˈblōˈbak/The unintended adverse results of an action or situation.

Productivity that doesn’t factor in

sustainability isn’t truly productive

Societal Personal

3. THE INTANGIBLE AGE

“The way you increase programmer productivity is not by increasing the lines of code per programmer per day. That

doesn’t work. The way you get programmer productivity is by eliminating lines of code you have to write. The line of

code that’s the fastest to write, that never breaks, that doesn’t need maintenance, is the line you never had to write.”

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple speaking in 1997

Ancient History Industrial Age Modern Age Information Age

• Human labor-centric

• Creation of the tangible

• Requires top-down leadership

• Requires humans to act as machines

• Measures only tangible costs

• Machine labor-centric

• Creation of the intangible

• Requires diverse leadership

• Requires humans to create machines

• Measures total costs

Old Model of Productivity New Model of Productivity

We’re in a major shift in the history of productivity

And new models are emerging…

Brands selling services and intangible goods are booming

2001 2005 2011

TOP 10 MOST VALUABLE BRANDS

Selling the intangible

TANGIBLE WIDGETS DIGITAL WIDGETS

VS.

How has this new dynamic changed our ways of thinking and measuring productivity?

• Require mechanical machines to create, package and

ship

• Require physical materials to be utilized in creation

• Produce by-products

• Require software and computing power

• Require very small amounts of physical materials to be utilized in their creation

• Can be eliminated by deleting hard drives

Measuring intangible costs to increase productivity

In the United States, 35 million are food insecure

The easy calculation to make is that it costs the U.S.A. $96 billion a year in social

programs, taxes and subsidized medical care due to food insecurity alone.

Any deep examination of productivity - that is, the rate at which products and services are

created per unit of labor, must take into account that modern tools and techniques for

measuring “indirect” costs have grown increasingly sophisticated. Consider the cost of food

insecurity.

Source: Harvard School of Public Health (2007) “The Cost of Hunger in America”

But that number jumps to $500 billion when you factor in the lost productivity of

citizens who are not living, consuming and working.

Recalculating productivity

Long-term societal costs Human sustainability Measuring indirect costs

?

Recalculating productivity

Long-term societal costs Human sustainability Measuring indirect costs

How will these factors affect the future?

4. INNOVATIONS IN PRODUCTIVITY

Extraordinary new tools altering the culture

Productivity in socializing

Social media has eliminated the pain points

and barriers of keeping in touch with friends

by bringing everyone to one place in a real-

time, transparent, always-on forum.

Productivity in collaboration

Innovations like video conferencing and

Google Docs have given us the tools to

replicate face-to-face exercises in realtime.

Productivity in the cloud

Now access to your content is hardware

agnostic, opening up a world of flexibility

and freedom.

Productivity in 4G

Now we can stream content we never before

could and download important files faster

than ever, all through citywide networks that

make the “hot spot” obsolete.

Productivity in Portability

The explosion of smartphones and tablets

have allowed us to bring high-powered

computing tasks into places we never before

could. Smaller, thinner form factors are

accommodating nearly every scenario

where technology is wanted.

Productivity in publishing

The tools to create and publish content are

easier, more accessible and cheaper than

ever. Publishers can create better content

more often and publish it to more people.

Extraordinary new tools altering the culture

Productivity in sharing

The tools to share content you discover

have become increasingly accessible and

plentiful. With one click of the mouse, you

can share an

article, video, URL, etc., through a multitude

of methods online.

Productivity in communication

The phone call has been replaced by text

messaging to facilitate multitasking, allow us to

choose our words more carefully and have

multiple conversations at once.

Productivity in data

The massive amount of data that flows

through our servers and websites has

facilitated more transparent results in

realtime, allowing us to make

better, faster, more-informed decisions on

the fly.

Productivity in learning

Education technology has opened up doors

to students that could never access or afford

proper learning. Lectures through iTunes,

online universities like Phoenix and rewards-

based learning software are just a few

examples of how technology is eliminating

barriers to learning for more people.

Productivity through benefits

Google’s corporate environment has taught

us the value of unique employee benefits as

a catalyst for more productivity. Whether it’s

dog sitting, gourmet food, dry cleaning or

wirelessly connected buses, each benefit is

meant to increase happiness, focus and

time on your professional duties.

Productivity through groups

Innovations like Groupon have been a boon

for businesses and consumers alike making

the selling process more efficient for

businesses and easier and more attractive

for consumers.

Productivity through recommendations

Whether it’s Amazon or

Pandora, technology has decreased the

effort needed to discover new content or

goods. Algorithms study our habits to better

inform our decision making and increase our

productivity as consumers. Moreover, sites

like Yelp use the power of the crowd to

better inform decision making.

Productivity through mobile purchase

Although it’s a new frontier, soon more and

more people and businesses will be

embracing the concept of the mobile

wallet, making our purchases faster and

easier than ever.

Productivity in giving

Technology and social movements have

eliminated much of the effort needed to give

back to people in need. Whether it’s texting

the Red Cross, buying Tom’s shoes or using

your Brighter Planet credit card, helping out

is easier and thus more productive than

ever.

Extraordinary new tools altering the culture

5. BENEFIT STATEMENTS

How can we look at productivity through the lens

of sustainable human greatness?

Increased speed Increased quality

Productivity

Increased skill

Human Benefits of Productivity (Laddering)

I will have more time I will achieve mastery I will create quality things and experiences

to relax to pursue my

passions

to be with

people

I love

over a problem over knowledgeover my craft for others

to enjoyfor its

own sake

so others will

be in awe of me

Being productive gives me the time to rest when I choose.

Being productive gives me the time to play when I choose.

Being productive gives me the time to be with the people I love.

Being productive means I will be better at what I do.

Being productive means I will be smarter than other people.

Being productive means I will outcompete my rivals.

Being productive means I will inspire others to be better.

Being productive means others will love me.

Being productive means I will serve the needs of others.

Human Benefits of Productivity

Time

Creation

Mastery

6. MAPPING OUR STATEMENTS

What are the tensions to map our statements against?

Sustainable vs. Short-term

Individual vs. Collective

Rational vs. Emotional

Collective

Sustainable Emotional Short-term

Individual

Being productive gives me the

time to be with the people I love.

Being productive means

I will serve the needs of others.

Rational

Being productive means

I will inspire others to be better.

Being productive means I

will outcompete my rivals.

Being productive means

others will love me.

Being productive gives me

the time to play when I choose.

Being productive gives me

the time to rest when I choose.

Being productive means

I will be better at what I do.

Being productive means

I will be smarter than other people.

Mapping Our Benefits

Collective

Sustainable Emotional

Individual

TIME WITH FAMILY

SERVE OTHERS

Rational

INSPIRE OTHERS

OUTCOMPETE RIVALS

ACHIEVE GLORY

TIME TO PLAY

TIME TO REST

MORE SKILLED

SMARTER

Renaming Our Benefits

Short-term

7. MAPPING THE COMPETITION

Smartphone market example study

Sustainable

Individual

Rational

Rest & Family

“Being productive gives me the time to rest when I

choose.”

“The phone to save ourselves from our phones.”

Windows 7 phones are all about breaking productivity and

relaxing. Its communications show a world of people who

are missing life as it goes by them and need a device that

helps them unplug and “get back to life,” with loved ones.

Microsoft

Short-term

TIME WITH FAMILY

TIME TO REST

Emotional

Individual

Compete & Smart

“Being productive means I will outcompete my rivals.”

Who talks about productivity as being

competitive?

“If you don’t have an iPhone, well, you don’t have an iPhone.”

Apple goes the long mile to demonstrate features worth

bragging about while lacing in competitive language to sell its

products “best,” “number 1,” and phrases like “then

you don’t have_______.

Apple

“Being productive means I will be smarter than other

people.”

Short-term

OUTCOMPETE RIVALS

SMARTER

Emotional

Individual

Play & Love

Who talks about productivity as play?

“Being productive gives me the time to play when I

choose”

HTC

“You need a phone that gets you.”

HTC’s “You” campaign is all about young people finding time

to play and be themselves. Their communications are about

going out, being with friends, being social and being appreciated.

“Being productive means others will love me.”

Short-term

ACHIEVE GLORY

TIME TO PLAY

Sustainable

Individual

Rational

Skilled & Smarter

“Being productive means I will be better at what I do.”

“Turning you into an instrument of efficiency.”

Motorola Droid phone consistently talks about speed and

cutting-edge technology. Their communications are heavy

on numbers, insider terms, and a focus on efficiency.

“Being productive means I will be smarter than other

people.”

MORE SKILLED

SMARTER

Sustainable Rational

Leadership & Service

“Live what you do.”

BlackBerry owns the workplace. Their spots speak to

serving a collective need better and to rationally getting ahead

in the grind. The sell is unemotional and about investments

in the future (usually in the community or small business).

“Being productive means I will inspire others to be

better.”

“Being productive means I will serve the needs of

others.”

Short-term

SERVE OTHERS

INSPIRE OTHERS

Thanks