Insights
What is Productivity Theatre?
I just left a meeting about a meeting.
The agenda? Review the template for the presentation that summarizes the report nobody read. The outcome? A follow-up meeting.
This is Productivity Theatre. And corporate America is addicted to it.
We’ve built entire careers around the performance of work instead of work itself. We mistake motion for progress. Deliverables for delivery. Attendance for contribution.
What productivity theatre looks like
Here’s what Productivity Theatre actually looks like:
- A 47-slide deck that could’ve been a single decision
- A weekly sync where 9 people watch 1 person read bullet points aloud
- A “strategy document” that’s just last quarter’s strategy document with the dates changed
- An inbox full of CYA emails no one will ever open again
- A brainstorm where the loudest voice wins and the best idea stays quiet
None of this helps anyone. None of this improves anything. None of this is human.
Systems that measure impact
The uncomfortable truth: most organizations can’t tell the difference between someone doing meaningful work and someone performing it. Because we never built systems that measure impact. We built systems that measure output.
And now AI is exposing the whole charade.
When a machine can generate your deck, draft your recap email, and fill in your template in 30 seconds — you can’t hide behind busywork anymore. The theatre is over. The lights are on. The audience can see there was never a show.
The work worth doing
So what’s left when you strip it all away?
The stuff that actually matters: original thinking, genuine human connection, creative risk, real problem-solving, and the courage to say “this meeting doesn’t need to exist.”
That’s not AI replacing humans. That’s AI freeing humans to finally do the work worth doing.
The question isn’t whether AI will take your job.
It’s whether your job was ever real in the first place.