“Never mistake motion for action.” — Ernest Hemingway
Busy Isn’t the Same as Effective: Escaping the Trap of Activity Theater
“Don’t confuse motion with progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but doesn’t make any progress.” — Alfred A. Montapert
In today’s performance-obsessed culture, the glow of a full calendar or a flurry of Slack notifications is often mistaken for achievement. But as many seasoned leaders have discovered—sometimes painfully—activity isn’t the same as productivity. This phenomenon has a name: Activity Theater. It’s a performance of work without the substance. It’s the illusion of momentum while actually spinning wheels.
This blog dives into the origins, manifestations, and consequences of confusing activity with productivity—and how individuals and organizations can break the cycle.
The Origins of the Confusion: A Historical Perspective
The roots of activity theater can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution, where productivity was largely measured in visible output: widgets produced, hours logged, machines operated. In such a world, activity correlated strongly with productivity.
However, as we transitioned into the Knowledge Economy, things changed. Work became less visible and more cerebral—strategic thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, decision-making. But the metrics didn’t evolve as quickly. The instinct to value visible effort persisted, creating a bias toward performative busyness.
Peter Drucker, widely regarded as the father of modern management, warned about this trap in the 1960s. He emphasized effectiveness over effort, arguing that “there is nothing so useless as doing efficiently what should not be done at all.”
What It Looks Like: Common Forms of Activity Theater
Activity theater wears many disguises. Some of the most recognizable include:
- Endless Meetings: Standing meetings without agendas. Update meetings that could have been an email. Brainstorm sessions that result in no decisions or action.
- Email and Messaging Addiction: Rapid-fire responses to every ping, creating the illusion of responsiveness while real work sits untouched.
- Dashboard Worship: Teams that obsessively tweak metrics or build elaborate reports to show “impact” without generating any.
- Jira Ticket Churn: Agile ceremonies where velocity is high, but the work being shipped is misaligned with user needs or business goals.
- Multitasking Madness: Toggling between tasks constantly, creating mental overhead and reducing the quality and depth of any single outcome.
Done Well: What Good Looks Like
High-functioning teams and leaders focus on outcomes over output. Consider the example of Basecamp (now 37signals), whose founders, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, champion the idea of calm productivity. Their team avoids excessive meetings, focuses on asynchronous work, and discourages performative busyness. The result? Fewer features, but deeply thoughtful and well-designed ones that customers value.
Another example comes from Amazon’s practice of starting projects by writing the press release and FAQs first. This “working backward” model forces teams to articulate the value of their work before doing it—prioritizing meaningful impact over surface-level motion.
Done Poorly: What to Avoid
In contrast, large enterprises often fall into the activity trap, especially during periods of transformation. Take the infamous case of Nokia. In the late 2000s, their internal teams were busy with meetings, strategy decks, and reorganizations, but the pace of real innovation lagged. Activity was plentiful, but it was directionless—and ultimately contributed to their decline in the smartphone market.
Or consider failed Agile transformations where velocity becomes the goal itself. Teams churn through sprints, close story points, and attend retrospectives—but without delivering customer value or solving core problems. That’s activity theater in full costume.
How to Combat Activity Theater
Breaking free requires both mindset shifts and management tools. Here’s how to approach it:
1. Define Clear Outcomes
Instead of tracking hours worked or tasks completed, define success in terms of outcomes. What change do we expect to see in the customer or the business?
2. Use Leading and Lagging Indicators
Lagging indicators (like revenue) are important, but combine them with leading indicators (like NPS, usage frequency, task completion rate) that signal forward movement. Don’t overindex on what’s easy to measure.
3. Empower Autonomy with Accountability
Micromanagement fuels performative work. Let teams own their roadmap but hold them accountable to results, not rituals.
4. Make Work Visible, Not Performative
Use transparent tooling (e.g., Kanban boards) and asynchronous updates to share progress—without requiring a meeting for everything.
5. Reward Impact, Not Busyness
Recognize employees who solve root problems, reduce scope effectively, or say “no” to the wrong projects. Celebrate outcomes, not overwork.
The Leadership Imperative
As a leader, your behavior sets the tone. If you attend every meeting, reply to every message instantly, and confuse activity with urgency, your team will too. Instead, model focus. Show that deep work is valued. Push for fewer, more important things done well.
As the old saying goes: Don’t just do something—stand there. Think first. Then act.
Wrapping up…
Activity theater is a seductive trap. It flatters our ego, masks uncertainty, and gives the illusion of progress. But it wastes time, energy, and morale.
True productivity comes from purpose, clarity, and meaningful outcomes. It’s not about doing more things—it’s about doing the right things well.
Let’s stop rewarding noise and start valuing the signal.
