Productivity, Thin and Deep
In my work with schools, I’ve noticed how the professional habits of the broader culture shape our mental models about the way schools should approach their work.
The danger is when those models become naturalized: their validity is assumed and the assumptions it carries go unquestioned.
In many professional cultures, “being productive” means:
Valuing what we can quantify
Following best practices within our industry
Checking off lists
Fulfilling accreditation and regulatory requirements
Responding to the loudest constituency
Tackling problems in front of us
Focusing on the next quarter
That framing, which I sometimes call “thin productivity,” often discourages the kind of behaviors – like long walks, asking questions that don’t have immediate answers, and taking longer to make decisions – that help us be curious. It’s not necessarily wrong: it’s just incomplete.
Most people like the idea of being curious. L+D’s “be more curious than certain” stickers were hot items at conferences, with people eager to put them on their water bottles and laptops – so popular, in fact, that we quickly ran out.
But bringing curiosity to our every day work can spark resistance.
The behaviors associated with curiosity are often seen as the opposite of productivity; curiosity is a “go slow to go fast” stance for approaching our work. Embodying curiosity thoughtfully challenges us to distinguish the key moments that require leaders to act quickly and the intervening stretches when we can toggle between “being productive” and paying attention.
Maybe we should reframe what “productivity” looks like. In contrast to thin productivity, “deep productivity” could mean:
Listening for story
Focusing on human experience
Looking outside our industry for new inspiration
Asking why the things on our list are needed
Going beyond what is required for accreditation and regulatory compliance
Paying attention to the need or constituency that is quietest
Identifying the problem that is in our blind spot
Focusing on the next decade
In other words, rather than asking, “what should we do,” curiosity prompts us to slow down and ask: “what’s the right question?” Taking the time for that conversation is a promising opportunity for impact, one that helps us avoid getting better at doing the wrong thing.
In her article “How To Do Strategic Planning Like A Futurist,” Amy Webb argues that “Lots of organizations get stuck cycling between strategy and tactics. While that process might feel
like serious planning for the future, it results in a perpetual cycle of trying to catch up: to
competitors, to new entrants, and to external sources of disruption.”
To get out of that cycle – and understand what your team should be working on in the first place – teams need to build their capacity for collective curiosity.
In some of our articles this year, we’ll focus on curiosity as an individual practice. (Check out great articles with that focus by my colleagues Crystal Land and Antonio Viva.) However, curiosity should also be intentionally practiced by teams – whether a senior team, an academic team, or the board.
Indeed, those are often the settings where the mental model of thin productivity is most likely to creep in, and where it needs to be intentionally challenged.
Here are a few different ways to practice deeper productivity as a team:
Block Out TIme For Team Curiosity. If you don’t protect time for deep thinking – and that of your team – it won’t happen. Something will always feel more urgent, and the day-to-day of school will expand to fill the time available. Methods like a consent agenda at the board level, or individual updates sent over email to be read prior to the team meeting, can carve out some regular time for structured curiosity as an individual and team practice.
Curiosity Walks. Getting more curious is rooted in paying more attention. A curiosity walk – moving through campus simply naming what you see, and then generating questions when you return – can be a good way for leaders to become more curious without feeling the pressure to evaluate or make a decision. Curiosity walks encourage leaders to observe without bias, freeing them to notice patterns or possibilities they might otherwise miss in their usual routines. Shadowing students is another method that can help us notice more.
Questionstorming. In the same way that we often encourage divergent thinking when looking for problems (aka brainstorming), we should encourage divergent thinking when identifying questions (aka questionstorming.) This is a good follow-up step after the time spent walking your campus or identifying signals, and it defers decision-making by ensuring you’re answering the right question first.
Rank Questions. Before making decisions about solutions, take more time to make decisions about questions. Which questions are the right ones, and why? Spending more time to converge on questions first often means spending less time – and more productive time – later. (The book “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Berger might make good summer reading for your team.)
Practice Different Thinking Hats. Edward de Bono’s concept of “Six Thinking Hats” is helpful both as a specific exercise and as a broader metaphor for different ways of viewing the world. On a team of department chairs, it might mean everyone taking time to look at a problem as a scientist, and then everyone taking time to approach a problem as an artist. On a board, it might mean recruiting trustees from different disciplines and industries, intentionally cultivating more diversity than may exist in the parent community. Some parent communities are disproportionately weighted toward finance, or tech, or “creatives,” or venture capital, or small business owners. Those divergent experiences are helpful when harnessed to help the team notice blind spots, avoid groupthink, or ask questions that would otherwise be missed.
Loop Back To Key Questions Several Times. The long-term payoff for curiosity is more visible when your team returns to those key questions – the ones that have surfaced through a process of noticing, questionstorming, and ranking – in future meetings. Curiosity does not preclude solution-finding; it just helps us defer solution-finding until we have more insight. Don’t let that generative session be a one-off, which sparks cynicism about the exercise; return to the questions you prioritize to make more productive decisions. (The goal is impact, after all.)
In a world that often confuses speed with progress, a commitment to curiosity can seem countercultural. Curiosity is not an obstacle to productivity, but it is an obstacle to a narrow cultural understanding of what productivity means. When we slow down to ask the right questions, we tap into a deeper form of productivity—one that allows for more meaningful, strategic, and long-term impact.
