The Great British Productivity Crisis: Time to Unleash Your Business

Ordinary office workers, breaking out into super hero productivity champions

The UK is stuck in a productivity nightmare. While other nations surge ahead, we’re trapped in a fifteen-year slump that threatens more than just bottom lines – it’s endangering our future living standards and well-being. But here’s the real kicker: Most businesses are still playing by yesterday’s rules in tomorrow’s game.

The landscape has fundamentally shifted:

– Customers are more demanding and informed than ever

– Employees seek purpose and autonomy, not just pay-cheques

– Digital transformation and AI are accelerating change (and wait for no-one)

– National Insurance hikes are squeezing margins

– Shareholders demand faster returns

– Society expects instant results

Hard Truth: Most organisations have become trapped in patterns that kill productivity:

Misaligned Priorities and Inefficient Processes

– Too many initiatives running simultaneously

– Resources spread too thin

– Inability to complete what matters most

Organisational Silos and Central Control

– Departments working in isolation

– Innovation stifled by hierarchical decision-making

– Knowledge and resources trapped in silos

Leadership Gridlock

– Leaders trapped in endless meetings

– More time spent reporting than leading

– Unable to clear paths for their teams

Restrictive Governance

– Multiple approval boards slowing progress

– Risk-averse decision-making

– Innovation strangled by process

Ask yourself:

– When was the last time you made a fast, effective change?

– Does your culture empower or suffocate?

– How many great ideas died in your approval process?

– Are you still wading through treacle to get simple things done?

This isn’t about another initiative or hanging motivational posters. This is about fundamental transformation – starting with how your organisation (read “the Leaders”) thinks and operates.

1. Inspired Leadership

– Build real relationships, not broadcast messages

– Clear the path for your people to succeed (Actually listen… revolutionary right?)

– Empower accountability at the front lines

– Transform from control to enablement

2. Dynamic Culture

– Make continuous learning your superpower

– Embrace diverse perspectives like your business depends on it (it does)

– Share information openly – good, bad, and ugly

– Make failure your teacher, not your enemy

3. Digitally Driven

– Transform technology into your competitive edge

– Put people first, always

– Focus on value creation through technology, by enabling swift, informed decision-making

– Remember: Technology alone is useless – it’s what people do with it that matters

4. Outcome Driven Mastery

– Make your strategy as adaptive as your market

– Orient around outcomes, not outputs

– Move people where value is being created

– Break down walls between teams

5. Value Realised

– Measure what matters: impact, not activity

– Fund dynamically based on outcomes

– Give maximum autonomy with smart guardrails

– Prioritise ruthlessly

The next two decades will bring more change than the last century. The productivity crisis isn’t just a headline – it’s your wake-up call. Organisations have three choices:

1. Transform now, on your terms

2. Be forced to change later when it’s too late

3. Become irrelevant

The businesses that break free from outdated thinking and empower their people to actually lead will dominate the market. Everyone else will be left explaining to shareholders why they couldn’t see the writing on the wall.

The businesses who rise above this inertia – who free their leaders to lead and empower their teams to deliver – will outperform the market. But this cannot be a surface change. This is a root and branch transformation that starts with reframing how your organisation thinks and operates.

What’s your move? The future belongs to businesses agile enough to seize it.

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    Three things your leader probably isn’t

    Tell your boss they’re wrong and watch what happens

    Leadership. Can’t think why we’re talking about this right now. Oh wait …

    Like people, businesses can have a muddled view of leadership. The character traits we seem to value in leaders are often the same ones that make for a piss poor leader.

    Let’s skin it like this: the personality traits that’ll land someone the big job are the personality traits that’ll likely cause them to botch the big job.

    Research says so. Our experience says so. Here’s more …


    It’s science

    Different studies point at this paradox, but Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premusic makes an excellent presentation in his book Why Do So many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

    In a nutshell, society tends to conflate confidence and competence and this dates back millennia. Freud wrote that humans instinctively want to recognise and promote brave, confident and even narcissistic people and, well, we do.

    But oh the irony. Because the character traits commensurate with genuinely successful leadership are modesty and conscientiousness. Does that describe your C-suite?

    Very unfortunately we see this play out most obviously in the realm of gender (per Tomas’s book). Men are more likely to present as unbreakable, self-assured and tough – women not so much hence this bears out in board rooms and pay gaps.

    Leadership material

    In the context of the Big 5 OCEAN traits of personality, successful leaders tend to score highly in open-mindedness, conscientiousness and agreeableness. So to answer the question posed in this article’s title: the three things your leader probably isn’t would be humble, considerate and emotionally mature.

    These traits translate into effective leadership if and when a business culture provokes authenticity, respect, collaboration and, in fact, sees vulnerability as an asset.

    Sweet Aunt Nelly that’s vulnerability and effective leadership in the same sentence.

    This matters because we’re at a turning point. The changes coming down the pike have the power to rip through businesses that cannot adapt. We’re into Darwin rules and businesses need to stay agile; to evolve and keep rolling as the pace picks up.

    Almost all modern businesses need to compete in arenas such as brand, tech, customer experience and purpose. Getting ahead in these domains needs seamless integration of human talent, analytics, data, AI, marketing, media and more.

    Basically, every business requires more brains and expertise than ever before to ensure its dogs are barking.

    The humble leader, admitting their lack of omnipotence, knows the necessity of a culture of trusting relationships, stakeholder ownership, discussion and collaboration so as to discern the course of action best for business. The humble leader is open-minded. This is strength. This is effectiveness.

    The reality

    So often, consultants and transformation gurus gather the data and build a watertight case for change, yet they temper the big reveal to pander to leadership narcissism.

    Can’t say that. They won’t like that. They won’t want that. No, that’s the CFO’s treasured project. No, I’m tracking for a promotion. No, that dumpster fire’s a CEO initiative. That’s a no-go. That’s untouchable. That’s taboo.

    Don’t criticise, wear blue, bring coffee, smile more …

    You’d be surprised how many times transformation consultants feel compelled to water down the work and undersell the job. There might even be two versions of the final report: the what we really need to do document and the what we can get away with document.

    The message is softened so that, best case, a handsome 75% of what needs to happen can pass through the board. It’s a lie to make sure CEO Smith feels sufficiently fluffed and fuzzy; feels not the need to sulk or activate douchebag mode.

    Change consultants might die a little inside but they’ll settle for half-baked because a) it’s better than nothing and b) let’s hope the cheque clears.


    Redefine and rebel

    Some leaders want to keep all the power for themselves, but empowering, trusting and nurturing others is essential for buy-in. For organisational agility.

    Some leaders want to appear tough and impenetrable, yet culture stalls and productivity nosedives when collaboration and challenge are taken off the table.

    Transforming businesses is a fact-finding and fact-facing endeavour. Leadership egos and taboos are often elephants in the room too big to navigate. Hence, perhaps, why almost all change projects wind up falling short and disappointing.

    In transformation, leaders are the glue. If they’re not able to stick themselves to the process and the solution – and inspire others to do the same – the lot’ll come unstuck.

    This is business survival and there are no sacred cows.

    So what ‘bout you? Are you ready to evolve and change the way things are done around here?

    We’re sparking a movement and the question is this: how Rebel are you?