The Hermione Granger Question
In more than a decade of coaching leaders, entrepreneurs and more, meaningful productivity has been a theme in every engagement.
In every leadership programme I’ve worked on, talk I’ve given, team I’ve supported, people have asked questions about that topic.
No one called it that, of course. But it was there.
Not just getting more done - although sometimes that’s the aim. But getting more of what really matters done.
And over that decade, the biggest pitfall I’ve seen leaders fall into is this: getting more efficient without getting more effective.
As General Stanley McChrystal once said, ‘Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right thing’.
Of course on the surface level, most leaders know this distinction.
But when it comes to productivity, the trap is still present: even what looks sometimes like getting more effective ends up being an efficiency exercise unless we are very careful.
It’s too easy to clear some ineffective meetings out of the calendar only to find more ineffective meetings taking their place without us getting to the ‘real work’.
Or to create better rules for engaging with our inboxes only to find that the time we create by doing this is spent on other things which aren’t what really matters.
That’s why, when I teach Meaningful Productivity I always start with what I call The Hermione Granger Question:
If I could give you one extra day every week, what would you do on that day?
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, our heroes start studying for the Hogwarts quivalent of their GCSEs. Hermione, the most exceptional student in the year, wants to study more subjects than the timetable has available. And so, in honour of her true academic excellence, she is given a Time Turner by Professor McGonagall - something which allows her (and only her) to experience the same period of time over and over again. She uses it to study all the elective subjects at once, including Divination, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy, which all happen at the time in the timetable.
If you had a Time Turner, what would you use it for?
If I could give you one extra day, every week, what would you do on that day?
Take a moment to answer that question, now. If you’re on the go, make a short list: 3-5 things you would do with an extra day.
And I really mean this: I know you’re almost certainly going to just keep reading, but if you want something to change in how your life is going, then pause now, just for 30 seconds, to create that list. You can’t stop firefighting unless you step out of the fire.
If you have the time, go further. It’s almost always a powerful exercise to map out an ideal average day in as much detail as you can.
Crucially, we want to anchor you in your answer to this question. Whatever you would do in answer to The Hermione Granger Question, that is why you are thinking about productivity.
Then you can go to the Meaningful Productivity Blueprint, or think about your day or week, and use the ideas you have to create space for more of those things.
The Hermione Granger Question is my way of asking the question you should ask everyone - your direct reports, children, friends - when they say they want something.
‘If you get that thing you want, what do you get that’s MORE important than the thing itself?’
Because then we know why we’re working towards something. And we don’t miss it when what we REALLY want comes, but doesn’t look like we thought it would.
When I ask The Hermione Granger Question in front of groups of leaders, the answers are a little worrying to me.
Over 8 years or so of asking questions like this, I’ve seen answers largely fall into two groups: those who would use the extra day to work on the important but not urgent things - the things which are part of the long game, moving the needle, getting out of the fire, but which it’s hard to get to when you’re fighting to stay afloat.
And the things which we need to do to look after ourselves: the things which recharge our energy. (Which, of course, are also things of utmost importance but don’t seem as urgent as the things other people are hassling us about.)
It used to be a fairly even split, as I remember: roughly 40% of people saying that they would do something to look after themselves, roughly 40% saying they would work on the important but not urgent things, and 20% with some mix.
Recently, when I’ve given Meaningful Productivity talks at large multinational companies, the answers are heavily weighted in favour of the things we need to do to look after our own health and wellbeing: sleep is almost always the first answer that comes. Exercise. Time with family. Nature.
This is a worrying trend. It could speak to the risks of the world we are all operating in: that more and more and more of us find ourselves sliding towards stress, strain and burnout. And know that we need more rest, exercise, more time in grounded, positive relationships. More of the outdoors.
And whilst it would be beautiful if organisations and systems responded to it, mostly I think it’s going to come down to us each taking responsibility and looking after ourselves.
So, ask yourself The Hermione Granger Question.
And then start creating the space to do those things. Even just 12 minutes at a time.
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PS My new book, The Power to Choose: Finding Calm and Connection in a Complex World, is out now. Get your copy here: https://geni.us/powertochoose
This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.