There is something to be said about getting the job done. Not just the act of doing it, but the feeling of it. The sense of accomplishment. Of pride. The excitement in realizing how much more you are capable of. The satisfaction of doing something, knowing you have done it well. 

Sometimes, the motivation to cross the finish line—to feel those feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment—comes easily.

Sometimes, however hard we may try, it is like we are stuck in a rut. Spinning our wheels, only to dig ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole.  

We have all been there. Wildly productive one day, and totally stuck the next. But what changed? What is really hindering our productivity? And what can we do to overcome those challenges?

Those questions are precisely what Charles Duhigg, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter and author, set out to answer in his 2016 book, Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity.

In a few hundred pages, Duhigg endeavors to explain the secrets of productivity in ways we may not have considered before. His narrative voice and storytelling style make for a compelling read, outlining eight different themes of productivity research, each with its own chapter:

      • Motivation
      • Teams
      • Focus
      • Goal Setting
      • Managing Others
      • Decision Making
      • Innovation
      • Absorbing Data

Each chapter explores a different facet of productivity, complete with case studies and current research, and provides meaningful takeaways to apply in our own work and lives.

Overall, the book is a worthwhile read for anyone looking for ways to challenge their current thinking and implement something new into their routine. However, for the purposes of this blog and the challenges faced by nonprofit organizations in particular, there were three concepts which are worth noting:

      • Psychological Safety
      • Stretch Goals
      • Manipulating Data

Psychological Safety

While turnover is by no means exclusive to the nonprofit sector, it is certainly something most nonprofit organizations can commiserate with. In many cases, nonprofit employees earn less than they might in a similar private sector position. They work longer hours with fewer benefits. Factor in compassion fatigue, and the emotional toll of working paycheck to paycheck, and it is little wonder so many folks are unwilling to stay for long periods of time.

High turnover has its price. More training for new hires. Constantly shifting roles, responsibilities, and team dynamics for those who stay. Not to mention the loss of institutional knowledge with each experienced person who chooses to leave.

But what can nonprofit leadership do to stem the tide? What will entice people to stay?

One possible solution is to build a culture of psychological safety in which people feel valued for their ideas and empowered to contribute in meaningful ways.

As defined by Duhigg, “psychological safety is a ‘shared belief, held by members of a team, that the group is a safe place for taking risks…it describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves” (50).

Time and time again, researchers have found that the best teams are those which report a high level of trust among the group. Teams where everyone can feel comfortable sharing their ideas, however crazy, without fear of retribution. Teams where all members have an equal say and show equal respect to everyone in the group.

Nothing will squash creativity and stall motivation quite like fear of retribution or public shaming. When new ideas are put down rather than encouraged, people will start doing what they’re told instead of thinking of new ways to do it even better. The very same skills for which they were hired will go un- or under-utilized. They will phone it in, day by day, until they ultimately decide to move on.

But in a culture of psychological safety, that paradigm is different. Everyone is valued for their ideas and encouraged to participate.  

“As a team member, we share control by demonstrating that we are genuinely listening—by repeating what someone just said, by responding to their comments, by showing we care by reacting when someone seems upset or flustered, rather than active as if nothing is wrong. When we defer to others’ judgement, when we vocally treat others’ concerns as our own, we give control to the group and psychological safety takes hold” (70).

Stretch Goals

At this point, many of us are familiar with the concept of SMART goals. From the classroom to the performance review, we learn that any goal should be Smart-Measurable-Achievable-Realistic-Timely. I best you can see the worksheet in your mind.

We have grown accustomed to explaining our plans to supervisors and board members using this system. Identifying exactly how and when specific goals can and will be achieved. It has become routine. Yet while we’ve been in the habit of creating SMART goals, we’ve still felt as though we haven’t gotten anywhere for it. 

That is because, as Duhigg writes, SMART goals alone aren’t enough.

As he explains, “if you’re being constantly told to focus on achievable results, you’re only going to think of achievable goals. You’re not going to dream big” (122). Yet for so many nonprofit organizations, dreaming big is the whole point. We’re working to bring visions of a better tomorrow to life—to do things which have never been done. To topple entrenched systems or overcome massive inequity. Big ideas need bigger goals.

To this end, Duhigg emphasizes the importance of stretch goals, or “an aim so ambitious that managers couldn’t describe, at least initially, how they would achieve it” (125). A stretch goal is an end result—the dream. And though we might not see the path toward reaching that dream at the start, combined with SMART goals, we might just find our way there.

“Stretch goals can shift attention to possible new futures and perhaps spark increased energy in the organization. They thus can prompt exploratory learning through experimentation, innovation, broad search, or playfulness” (127).

However, be cautious not to overshoot. Stretch goals can add a sense of fresh air and renewed motivation, but we still have to be SMART about getting there.

“The reason why we need both stretch goals and SMART goals is that audaciousness, on its own, can be terrifying. It’s often not clear how to start on a stretch goal. And so, for a stretch goal to become more than just an aspiration, we need a disciplined mindset to show us how to turn a far off objective into a series of realistic short-term aims” (127).

Combine these stretch and SMART goals with an environment of psychological safety, as described above, and we may have the perfect recipe for teams to come together and be truly productive. To suggest new ideas, big or small, and see just what difference they can make.

Manipulating Data

Data is everything. It drives board and budget decisions. It determines grant and funding opportunities. Data can make or break a program’s success. 

Indeed, CRMs and modern plugins and programs make it easier than often to compile reports at the click of a button. We receive automated dashboards right to our inboxes. We see the charts and hear the numbers, but somewhere along the line, we stopped understanding what our data actually means.

As Duhigg explains, the tendency to see data but not truly understand its implications is known as “information blindness.” The best way to overcome such blindness, is “to grapple with the data in front of us, to manipulate information by transforming it into a sequence of questions to be answered to choices to be made” (246).

In this, Duhigg suggests that we should physically do something with the data. “It’s not enough for your bathroom scale to send daily updates to an app on your phone. If you want to lose weight, force yourself to plot those measurements on graphic paper and you’ll be more likely to choose a salad over a hamburger at lunch” (265-266).

So the next time you want to crunch the numbers, try notecards instead of Excel. Keep track of weekly stats on a lined piece of paper. Put away the PowerPoint and dust off the old chart and easel sitting in the corner of the conference room. Find a way to personally engage with the numbers, and over time, you see trends and information you never could have see before.

So while reading this book in itself will not help you be more productive, applying some of these concepts may just help you overcome that obstacle you’ve been stuck on.

If you’re ready to learn more about productivity, grab your copy here. 

From work to play, see all the titles on my bookshelf at bookshop.org/shop/CallMeBri. 

Duhigg, Charles. Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity. Random House, 2016.