Productivity is not an abstract economic concept reserved for policy makers and economists. It is the engine that underpins prosperity for organisations, communities, and nations. When productivity grows, living standards rise, organisations become more competitive, and people experience greater security and opportunity. When it stalls or declines, the consequences are felt everywhere in cost of living pressures, reduced competitiveness, and a growing sense that working harder is delivering less.
Some countries are getting this right. Ireland, for example, has averaged productivity growth of around 3% over the past five years. That trajectory creates confidence for investors, for organisations, and for people planning their future. The outlook feels positive because the system is working.
Many other countries are not faring as well. Australia is one of them. In several sectors, industry productivity growth has fallen below -2%. That is not a short-term inconvenience; it is a structural problem. Over time, declining productivity erodes competitiveness, places pressure on wages, and pushes up the cost of living. Left unchecked, it limits what is possible for future generations to afford to live the same way that we are currently enjoying.
At its core, productivity is simple. It is the relationship between inputs and outputs.
Prosperity is created when the value of outputs grows faster than the inputs required to produce them. The widening gap between the two is where growth, resilience, and opportunity come from.
The challenge is not that we do not understand this equation. The challenge is that we make it far more complicated than it needs to be — and we often avoid confronting the real causes of poor productivity.
Across Australian industry, most organisations are operating at roughly 50% of their potential productivity. In white-collar and knowledge-based environments, it is often significantly lower.
This is not because people are lazy or incapable. Quite the opposite. People are busy, often overwhelmingly so. The issue is not effort; it is flow.
Work is slowed by unnecessary handovers, rework, unclear priorities, excessive approvals, overloaded leaders, and systems that were never designed with the end-to-end value stream in mind. Work queues up. Priorities shift daily. Firefighting becomes normalised.
The solution is conceptually simple:
But simple does not mean easy.
The biggest barriers to productivity improvement today are not technical. They are human and systemic.
Leaders are operating in an environment of constant distraction. Competing priorities, endless communication channels, back-to-back meetings, and a steady stream of “urgent” issues leave little space for reflection, improvement, or meaningful leadership.
The era of the dominant, angry leader has largely passed. Today’s challenge is different distraction, diluted accountability, unclear strategy, and a reluctance (or lack of time) to provide both positive and constructive feedback.
Without clarity and focus at the top, organisations drift. Continuous improvement becomes an initiative rather than a way of working. Innovation becomes sporadic rather than systematic.
Productivity improvement starts with leaders regaining control of their own time and attention.
Techniques such as Leadership Time Optimisation and Leader Standard Work help leaders distinguish between value-adding and non-value-adding activities, stabilise their routines, and create the space required to lead rather than react.
When leaders model focus, discipline, and reflection, it sends a powerful signal to the organisation. It creates the conditions for improvement rather than adding to the noise.
From there, organisations can align effort through clear systems such as Strategy and Behaviour Deployment, ensuring that strategy, culture, and daily work are connected, visible, and consistently reinforced.
Culture does not change because leaders ask people to “care more” or “work harder”. Culture changes when systems change.
When strategy is clear, behaviours are defined, feedback is timely, and improvement is built into daily work, people naturally engage. Continuous improvement and innovation become part of how work is done, not something layered on top.
This systems-based approach to leadership and excellence is at the heart of the upcoming book Leading Enterprise Excellence (Butterworth, Dargan, Jeavons, Ray, 2026). The book provides leaders with a practical guide to the key leadership and organisational systems required to regain focus, improve productivity, and lead excellence sustainably.
No organisation has this fully figured out, and no leader should have to navigate it alone.
That is why the Enterprise Excellence Community and Group exists: to provide leaders with opportunities to learn from others who are actively leading excellence in their organisations. Through free monthly virtual gatherings and quarterly in-person site visits, leaders can see what good looks like in practice, learning directly from those who are delivering real results.
If you are interested in being part of these conversations and learning alongside other leaders, you can connect with us here:
https://enterpriseexcellencegroup.com.au/contact
Productivity is not just an organisational issue. It is a national one. The choices leaders make today, about focus, systems, and how work is designed will shape prosperity for years to come.
By working smarter, improving flow, and building cultures of continuous improvement and innovation, we can create organisations that are more competitive, more engaging, and more resilient.
If we do that together, we create a better future, not just for our organisations, but for the people and communities they support.