Reduce distractions and lift office productivity

A constant deluge of emails, endless meetings and urgent issues pervades the modern workplace.

For many years personal productivity has been regarded as a core skill to be developed and honed by managers. Increased productivity was attained by running training and resourcing the workforce with the latest productivity technology.

But if we focus only on skills and tools, productivity gains are often short-lived and rarely survive in the face of the constant deluge of emails, endless meetings and urgent issues that pervade the modern workplace. The cost of lost productivity is significant.

An online survey of 400 white-collar workers conducted in the US in 2015 found workers estim­ated that they spent 3.3 hours a day checking work emails and a further 2.1 hours on personal messages. Many of these workers are likely to have had some training on email management or personal productivity, yet they still are slaves to their inboxes.

To achieve a real and sustained increase in productivity, it must be seen as more than just a competency to be developed. Produc­tiv­ity needs to be perceived as a lead­ership issue. The culture of a team or an organisation influ­ences the productivity within that group, and leaders must allow their people every opportunity to do their work without the constant distraction many workplaces have come to accept as normal.

A recent conversation with a senior client highlighted the extent of this issue. He explained that he came into the office at 6am most days as it was the only time he could get a clear run at his email. The rest of his day generally was spent in endless meetings. He told me while he loved his work, he hated his job. He was passionate about managing his team but was being ground down by the volume of emails, meetings and urgent issues.

So, what can leaders do to create a more productive culture and environment? First, they need to ensure they are not a part of the problem. Historically, new physicians took the Hippocratic oath and embraced the spirit of the Latin phrase primum non nocere, meaning “first, do no harm”.

Leaders should take this approach to productivity and ensure they are not dragging down the productivity of their team. If they approach work with their team in a purposeful and mindful way, they can reduce the unnecessary noise and urgency that can get in the way of important work.

It is critical that they lead by example and demonstrate good productivity behaviours. That means using email communications effectively, turning up to meetings on time and following through on what they say they will do. A leader’s brand is always on show.

Team productivity will flourish when there are a set of agreed rules under which the team can operate. This is how society works, and while there are often rules in place to ensure appropriate behaviour in the workplace, they often are lacking when it comes to how we work together productively. Email and meeting protocols can help, but they must be led from the top and, if possible, created and policed by the team itself rather than by management.

Finally, unnecessary “urgency” needs to be managed. I work in many organisations where the main, and sometimes the only, form of prioritisation is urgency. Whatever is most urgent gets dealt with. Whoever screams the loudest gets the most attention.

Leaders need to create a sense of urgency, not senseless urgency. While some of our time will always be spent reacting to urgent issues, most of our time should be spent being proactive.

This requires a different mindset and, again, requires a leader to create the environment for the team to operate this way.

Dermot Crowley is a productivity specialist and author of Smart Teams.