Leaders are always looking for ways to improve employee productivity, but HR time management training is not enough. The problem is that people don’t work alone. Individual methods like Inbox Zero and the Eisenhower Matrix can’t solve it.

As W. Edwards Deming, a leading statistician and management consultant, argued in his book Out of the Crisis, 94% of problems and opportunities for improvement are systemic, not individual. While individual solutions are helpful, to be most effective in solving low productivity and inefficiency, we need to make improvements at the systemic level, not just the individual level.

1. Cascading Conversations

Many high-performing organizations have established a system of daily, tiered conversations, with a clear escalation sequence for all issues. The first conversation, which involves frontline employees, begins at the beginning of the workday. The next conversation, involving supervisors, takes place after 30 minutes. Managers meet 30 minutes later, followed by directors, VPs, and finally the executive team. Issues are addressed at the lowest possible level, and if a decision cannot be reached, the issue is escalated to a higher level.
This system has several important benefits. It strengthens the connection between the C-suite and the front line, helps drive faster decisions, and most importantly, improves productivity by reducing the number of scattered emails about various issues.