Productivity...

I had a very good day today. No office, no calls, no mad rush, no quarrel with collogues and/or boss. I have taken leave from office and devoted the entire day to studying. It was a wonderful feeling - felt like a student again (I have always loved being a student).

I almost finished the entire book on "Introduction to management" but for the last chapter. Today I learnt about different control techniques in management. I also learnt about Operational research (OR). OR caught my imagination almost at once. OR is the field of management that uses mathematical modeling to solve the various management related issues (like human resource calculation, inventory ordering, risk analysis etc). It helps managers to make optimal and most logical decisions under uncertainty. Hmm...interesting. Math has a say in management as well, felt good to know that.

After the entire day was over, one of my very good friends - Amol - called me. We chatted routinely and he asked me how much hours I have put in to study and what all I have learnt. The discussion went back to our engineering days and he was surprised to know I used to study for almost 12 hours a day during our preparation holidays. He was of the opinion that studying that much did not actually give good "productivity". This got me thinking.

I felt that whatever he was telling was very reasonable. It also made me think more about the concept of productivity itself. The most commonly used interpretation of productivity is Productivity = (output/input). It is the output that we generate per unit of input. If this ratio is more, the productivity is considered to be more. This is correct when we are talking about machines and other non living things. But, I feel, this definition is not correct when human beings are involved.

When humans are involved, productivity is so much more then the ratio of input to output. Let me try and clarify. A student may study for 12 hours and yet not get good scores, in general terms you may say that his/her productivity is low. But, this teaches the student the importance of tenacity, never say die attitude and a passion for striving hard to get results. A fresh graduate may give interviews in about 10 companies before getting a final job. In general terms you may say that the productivity of the person in 10 previous attempts was zero. But it is this zero productivity activity that gave him much needed experience so that he can clear on the 11th attempt. Are you getting what I am trying to say??

Life for many of us is so much like a tennis game. You can have control over the ball only when it is in your court. Once you have hit that ball across to the other court, you do not have control over the ball or what your opponent does with it. Productivity for me is doing your best when the ball is in your court. It does not matter if you miss the ball, so long as you have stretched to your maximum extent possible. Your productivity should be measured by the amount of effort you are putting in when the ball is in you court. You are ultra productive if you are doing best in your court. You are unproductive if you are not playing up to your best of abilities.

Thank you Amol for your chat with me today :-)