“She’s a dancer”

This is one of my favorite productivity stories, although most people use it when confronted with educational or ADD/ADHD diagnoses:

Telling us a story about a famous ballerina, Robinson tells us that the young woman, these days, would likely be diagnosed as having ADHD, as she didn’t concentrate in her classes. Taken to see an educational specialist, the psychologist was smart enough to leave the room, turn on the radio, and let the young girl dance. He told her parents, “Jilien isn’t sick – she’s a dancer”. She went on to a dance school, joined the Royal Ballet and has choreographed most of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musicals. Nowadays, we would give her medication and tell her to calm down.

So sometimes, when you see someone being unproductive, maybe he’s just not a dancer for the tasks at hand. If you’re a manager you may need to figure out how that person dances.