The Productivity Predicament - Why Leaders Are Failing To Get More Out Of Their Teams

"How do we get more out of our people?"

It's a common question that I hear.

The Goal that these Leaders are trying to get to is higher Productivity.

Yet, when I look at the actions most Leaders take, I can see that they are never going to attain higher Productivity from their Teams.

This was easily seen with the Return-To-Office "Mandates" that have completely backfired, which has shown to be detrimental to Productivity.

But you also see it in a lot of other places in Business.

Why do Leaders have such a difficult time with increasing Productivity?

There are a lot of Factors we have to look at to Understand this.

Environment

The first problem we see is that the Modern Work Environment is extremely detrimental to Productivity.

There is more than one factor as well.

Open Office Designs have proven to be horrible for Productivity.

When we look at Neurocardiology, we see that proximity can lead to Dis-Stress being shared among Employees and Leaders.

The Unnatural Straight lines, rigid designs, and Lighting all have also been shown to be detrimental to Productivity.

No matter how you look at it, the Workplace itself is not conducive to Productivity.

However, it gets worse.

Focus

The next problem is that Leaders are not letting Employees attain Focus in their work.

I already mentioned the Open Office Design being horrible, and part of why we know this is that it prevents most Employees from Focusing.

Constantly they are being hit with Distractions and Interruptions to their work.

Then let's talk about the $37 Billion waster to Productivity - Meetings.

The longer that Employees are in Meetings, the less time they get to Focus on their actual work.

Employees spend 7.5 hours, nearly an ENTIRE work day, in useless Meetings every week.

No wonder Productivity tanks!

If we look back at some of the Research that claimed Work-From-Home was less Productive, we actually saw that it often had NOTHING to do with Employees, but rather it was the Excessive Useless Meetings Leaders were calling.

If you don't allow Employees to Work, you shouldn't be surprised when you don't get Results!

Everything Doesn't Matter Equally

Another major problem we see is in what work Leaders push their Employees to do.

It is common for there to be a mentality that "All the work is Important".

But this just isn't true.

For most Employees, maybe 20% of the work they do is Important.

Everything else can either be put off or quite frankly doesn't need to be done at all!

However, when Leaders push Employees to treat everything equally, whatever is "Loudest" tends to get done.

However, that which is "Loud" tends to be Useless work 80% of the Time.

So, instead of being Productive toward work that actually gets Results, Leaders are pushing Employees to do work that is meaningless at the end of the day.

You can't get mad at Employees when you tell them to treat that work as Important when it isn't.

Time Doesn't Mean Productivity

This is one we have been seeing a lot of pushback on lately.

From Quiet Quitting to Coffee Badging has begun to be talked about more.

The Reality is that Time In the Office, and even Time Working, doesn't mean Productivity.

For Instance, when you look at the Data, you find that Employees who work 40 hours per week tend to be more Productive than those who work 80 hours per week.

Why is that?

Productivity is not inherently tied to Time.

Usually, they have an Inverse Relationship.

The more Time Spent on something, the Less Productive things tend to be.

When it comes to Human Psychophysiology, the reality is that we work best in Cycles.

Ultradian Rhythms is the technical term for it.

We can only maintain high levels of Productivity for certain amounts of time, then we need Recovery.

When Leaders push Employees to break those Rhythms, their Quality of work quickly diminishes.

However, when you keep Employees working in the Ultradian Rhythms, their Productivity skyrockets!

People Don't Mean Productivity

This is another one that I see far too often among Leaders.

There is a Belief that if they add more Employees, Productivity should increase.

However, this generally doesn't work out.

For one, most Leaders are measuring the wrong things, like hours in the office instead of... you know... Results.

The interesting thing about People is that they will adjust based on what you expect them to do.

So if you expect all Employees to be in the Office for 8 hours, add new Employees, but keep the Goal Results the same, something interesting happens.

They will all be in the Office for 8 hours as demanded.

Yet, even with more Employees, the Results will stay the same.

It is because the same Results are expected, and so instead of exceeding the Results, more Employees share the same workload.

However, this is really a best-case scenario in most offices as they are today.

In general, Employees hate their work today, are extremely stressed, and are dissatisfied with their Leaders.

All of these things can be spread from Employee to Employee.

When you add more Employees to an Environment like this, you'll find that the Environment just becomes more Toxic.

As it becomes more Toxic, not only does Productivity decrease, but Leaders end up with significantly more Problems.

In this, more likely scenario, by adding more Employees you are actually making things so much worse.

Burnout

This brings me to one of my favorite topics to discuss - Burnout.

About 80% of Employees are experiencing it today.

The Term Burnout just means that people are under so much constant Dis-Stress, that they cannot Recover, and become progressively less able to do anything until they quite literally collapse.

The Reality is that most of the factors from above Combine together to increase levels of Burnout.

When you add more people, Burnout spreads faster.

During Burnout, Humans burn through Energy (Mg-ATP) at faster rates, which means they just can't do more work.

You can keep them at a desk for longer hours, but you are just making the Burnout worse.

With this, you also see Productivity decrease dramatically.

Not to mention the decreases in Health that are directly tied to levels of Burnout.

This means that Employees will be sick more often, require more doctor visits, and potentially worse.

All of these are major destroyers of Productivity.

Unless you can help Employees get out of Burnout, you'll just see things get worse.

Engagement

This is an important one - Engagement is Important.

Most Leaders have Teams, yes, but having a Team doesn't mean that Employees will Listen to you or Care about the Organization.

The Reality is that most Employees act like Mercenaries - they are they to make money and are happy to go to the highest bidder.

If you don't pay them enough, they won't work.

They'll just watch as things burn to the ground around the Organization.

If your workforce is filled with Mercenary Employees, you'll never get significant levels of Productivity.

I also am not blaming the Employees.

Years of horrible Leadership have taught Employees that they shouldn't trust or be dedicated to any Organization.

They are generally the ones who get screwed, even when 99% of the Problems are not their fault.

So, if you don't treat your Employees well, then they are right to act as Mercenaries, and Productivity will be the least of your concerns.

If you want to get Productivity to Increase, you need to have Employees who are truly Engaged in their work.

This won't happen with fake pleas to make the workplace "fun".

Ping-Pong Tables, Forced Recognition, and Pizza Parties don't make a workplace more enjoyable and definitely don't Improve Engagement.

People are not stupid, they can see through the facades.

Cheap tricks like this can work for, maybe, a few months, but then they become meaningless.

Human Connection

This brings us to an important factor - Human Connection.

Most Leaders hide behind office doors and spreadsheets.

It's part of the reason why the Role of CEO is Dead.

Spreadsheets cannot comprehend the multitude of factors that Impact Humans.

If they could, Spreadsheets would have already unlocked massive Productivity.

Except, they haven't, otherwise we wouldn't be having this problem getting Productivity.

If you really want to raise your Team's Productivity, you need to create real Human Connections.

Emotional Intelligence is important here, but it is more than that.

It's about understanding how Humans work.

Not only do you need to know the Humans on your Team, but you also need to understand the Psychophysiology of Humans to unlock their Potential.

When you look at the workplace, you see constant failures in understanding ANY aspects of what makes Humans Human.

It shows a failure in understanding Energy (Mg-ATP) dynamics.

Humans are not the center of Business.

Not the Employees, not the Customers, not the Suppliers, and not even the Leaders themselves!

When you fail to make Business about Humans, you are doomed to never unlock Productivity in Humans.

Flow States

This brings us to the Final point - Flow States.

If you want the highest levels of Productivity, you need to unlock Group Flow States.

Flow States are when we are our most Productive, most Creative, most Innovative, and best at Problem-Solving.

When we get into these states as Groups, it significantly boosts all of these aspects.

However, if you are paying attention, you'll notice something.

Productivity?

Creativity?

Innovation?

Problem-Solving?

These are keywords that you constantly hear Businesses Struggle with.

"Why can't we get more Productivity out of Employees?"

"We need more Innovation to Succeed!"

"Employees aren't as Creative as they used to be."

"We need more Employees who are proactive in Solving Problems!"

Do these sound familiar?

They should because it sounds like every Fortune 500 Company.

Why do all these Businesses have these Problems?

They are not getting Flow States from their Employees.

The reason?

Nothing these Organizations are doing contributes to Flow States.

The Environment?

Definitely not!

Focus?

Absolutely necessary to maintain Flow States.

Useless Tasks?

Makes people Bored which blocks Flow States, made worse when those tasks are treated as if they were Important.

Burnout?

Completely makes Flow States Impossible to Reach.

Toxic Workplace?

Another Flow Blocker.

Lack of Engagement and the Human Connection?

You'll never get Employees into Flow States under these conditions.

The reason you can't get Productivity from Employees?

NOTHING in the modern workplace is designed to allow them to be Productive.

Until you figure out how to overcome these problems, you'll never be able to have a truly Productive workforce.

You can add more Employees, take away Employees, make Demands, change Quotas, but you'll just make things worse.

Fix the Workplace, and then you'll have an Opportunity for Productivity.