From manufacturing widgets to perfecting cucumber salad, let’s reconsider productivity

The young pastoral leader was worried that she’d be considered “unproductive.”

“When I have a lunch or coffee scheduled on a weekday with a friend, I mark it ‘private’ on my calendar, and if anyone asks, I say I’m meeting with a colleague,” she told me. “In this season when budgets are tight and cutbacks are necessary, I can’t afford to give anyone a reason to think I am not working.”

I wish that her fear were specific to the pandemic and the rise of remote work, but if we are honest, it has always been around.

Who made the rule that productivity equals time in an office or in front of a computer? Probably someone who measured the day’s accomplishments in the goals met for widget production but didn’t take into account the need for creativity, innovation, imagination, collaboration or relational support.

So what counts as work? What does being productive mean? And who gets to decide?

Heading into year three of the pandemic, we clearly don’t do well in isolation. Extroverts and introverts alike need dynamic avenues of stimulation in order to produce creative ideas and new solutions to our ever-growing list of challenges.

We need to be in different spaces and with different sources of input in order to expose ourselves to fresh ways of thinking and doing. This is especially true when much of our work as leaders is addressing the ever-evolving challenges in front of us. We know the old adage “Yesterday’s solutions won’t solve today’s problems.” Where, then, do we look for solutions to today’s problems?

If we want to create a new cucumber salad, working with and studying cucumbers will get us only so far. New and better ideas will come more quickly and with greater potential if we experiment with tomatoes, vinegars, creams and spices — and also go for a walk, watch a movie, play a game, read a book or even have coffee with a friend.

While doing these non-cucumber activities, we need to be intentional about not trying to force new cucumber ideas. That will actually inhibit the process and prevent us from settling into a creative state of mind, the place where new recipes are born.

If all we ever think about is cucumbers, we will come up with unimaginative iterations of the same old salad. We have to take a break from the pressing challenge and relax our minds and bodies to open pathways to inspiration. We have to not think about cucumbers for a while.

When our job is to address challenges, coffee with a friend (or whatever you do to reset, refresh, renew your body, mind and spirit) isn’t a mere distraction. It is a critical part of the creative process. It is work.

An oft-repeated phrase in the Leadership Education offices is “The way we do the work is the work.” This means that the way we do all the steps needed to gather people in conversation is just as important as whatever the gathering yields.

The way we create a program — from selecting tools to assembling ideas to engaging collaborators to preparing for feedback — the way we do all of that work IS the work we are called to do.

This also means that if part of our job is to come up with creative ideas to address constantly changing challenges, the way we spark that creativity is also part of our work.

My heart breaks for the young leader who keeps her coffee engagements private for fear that she’ll be perceived as not working. If she returns to the office physically, emotionally and spiritually recharged, then that meeting IS part of her work.

If her sermons, Bible studies, lessons, newsletters, meetings — any outputs of her productivity — are better because she’s had coffee with friends, then that (or whatever else she does to improve them) IS the work she is supposed to be doing.

I’m not advocating that pastors or Christian institutional leaders spend their days at the movie theater and claim it as research. Certainly, there are outliers who will take advantage of systems.

But many of the pastoral leaders I know are scraping the bottom of the barrel of their creativity right now. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Stretched thin. Squeezing every possible minute out of their days trying to serve others.

If the way pastoral leaders do their work IS the work they are called to do, then there should be no need to justify or hide whatever creative inputs help them continue to show up and lead their communities. They should be encouraged, celebrated, supported and rewarded in those pursuits.

Creative generative solutions to the unique challenges in front of us are waiting to be discovered at the intersections of dynamic and diverse lines of thought, experiences and relationships. It takes work to find those intersections. Getting there may not look like productivity. It may look like coffee with a friend or a walk in the park. It is worthwhile work nonetheless.