When it comes to improving productivity, our own or others, we frequently look to such things as motivation, commitment, leadership, incentives and rewards, and various other factors (obstacles?) for the answers. You know, I would be more productive if I was more motivated or committed, or if there was better leadership, or if the incentives and rewards were greater. Or, I would be more productive if there weren’t so many interruptions, or if the priorities didn’t change, or if “they” were better organized. In short, it seems we look everywhere except infrastructure. But without a sufficient infrastructure, all the other things (e.g., motivation, leadership, etc) will not make much difference.
What do I mean by infrastructure? All the tools, equipment, facilities, practices, and routines we use to accomplish anything. Stuff like pens, pencils, computers, desks, computer programs, meetings, agendas, and standard operating procedures are all part of our infrastructure. Much of our infrastructure is transparent to us, so much so that we can operate without even thinking about it. We know where to find the coffee cups for our morning coffee, where the shampoo is in the shower, and we drive our cars without consciously considering gas pedal, brake, steering wheel, mirror, etc. As Nike says, we just do it.
About the only time it seems that we notice much of our infrastructure is when it doesn’t work. It is at those times that it comes out of the background of transparency and into the foreground of a problem or breakdown. And when our infrastructure doesn’t work, IT becomes the things we focus on, and our productivity drops. Just recall the last time your word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation software didn’t work if you want to see the impact of an infrastructure breakdown. No matter how motivated or committed you are, or how inspired you are by leaders, if the infrastructure doesn’t work, your productivity dives until the infrastructure is repaired.
I believe our infrastructure establishes the limits of our productivity. For the past several years, I have been focused heavily on publishing academic articles dealing primarily with change management and resistance to change. My book shelves, both at home and work, my computer files, and the classes I taught were all organized around academic publications in the area of change management. My infrastructure supported change management, so when I looked around to see what I could work on, all the things in my infrastructure pointed to and called for “change management”.
Recently I was promoted to full professor. As a result, the “publish or perish” pressure is off and I no longer “have to” publish. I am really free to work on whatever I want. Although I have always worked on what I was interested in, the big difference now is that there is no “have to” in the background nagging me to do another article or book. So, what will I work on with all this new found freedom?
Well initially I found that I continued doing what I had done before. How could I do much else when all my infrastructure was organized to support someone who was working on becoming a full professor, not someone who was a full professor? If I wanted to do something different, I would have to build a new infrastructure. The one thing I knew I wanted to do was play more golf, so I joined the OSU Golf Course. A new piece of infrastructure that requires I develop new habits and ways of working. I also just completed taking an inventory of the books in my home office to see what no longer speaks to me. Interestingly, a number of books I have had for years are now gone. Next are the computer files.
The leadership literature tells us you need a vision in order to know what infrastructure is required to fulfill it. But how do you clear the space so that you can see what vision to create? As I eliminate more of the infrastructure I have depended on for years, I have an experience of less constraint and more freedom to pursue other things. But I also notice that I have less certainty about what to do. Our existing infrastructures support who we know ourselves to be. When we start taking them apart, it can create some uncertainty.
So, I am in the midst of dismantling one infrastructure and building a new one. I suspect that this will take sometime.
