Productivity is an interesting word. It means to produce something. Anything. For any reason. There’s no inherent expectation of a specific result. As a society, we’re far too focused on productivity itself and not concerned enough with intention. People elect politicians to “get stuff done” with apparently no understanding or interest in intended outcomes. I’ve worked in corporate environments where Nike’s “Just do it!” tagline was touted as the path to success, but just do what? And why?

The idea of me leading a team, leading a company even, is absurd when I stop and think about it. I was the shy kid. Not just slow-to-warm-up-shy, but the kind of shy where if a stranger (or a teacher, or my friends’ parents) spoke to me I would freeze, deer-in-the-headlights style. People called me Chatty-Kathy as a joke. Everyone thought there was something wrong with me…