The Brutally Honest Guide to Boosting Productivity at Work

Most productivity advice is outdated. Long meetings, micromanagement, and hustle culture aren’t the answer. Real productivity is built on systems, trust, and autonomy. In this guide, you’ll learn:


Why most workplace productivity advice is broken

We'll be honest: Most workplace productivity advice sucks.

"Wake up earlier."
"Use this app."
"Try another to-do list."

These generic tips might help individuals feel more organized for a day or two, but they do nothing to improve productivity at the company level. The real issue is that it's always about optimizing people, not the system they work in.

Productivity isn’t about individual output. It’s about designing systems where teams thrive and work flows naturally.

Traditional organizations throw more hours, more tools, and more pressure at the problem. This leads to burnout, disengagement, and wasted time. The key isn’t pushing people harder, it’s rethinking how work actually gets done.


What is workplace productivity really about?

In the corporate world, productivity is the metric that expresses how efficiently an organization transforms inputs into valuable outputs. The fundamental formula for productivity, is simply dividing output by inputs.

Input includes labor costs, time, overhead (like rent, utilities, company vehicles, etc.), resources, tools, and money. Output is mostly quantified in terms of products, services, and value delivered.

Productivity itself hinges on multiple factors, including:

  • Streamlined processes
  • Motivated and engaged workforce
  • Effective communication
  • Strategic allocation of resources.

The goal? More value with fewer wasted inputs.

There are different ways to measure company productivity:

  • Labor productivity (output per hour)
  • Capital productivity (return on investments)
  • Multifactor productivity (total efficiency across the org)

But the real question isn’t just how to measure productivity—it’s how to improve it.


How to fix the environment (not the people)

Here’s the hard truth many leaders miss: your people aren’t the problem—your environment is.

If your workplace productivity is dragging, don’t default to more training or performance reviews. Look at the system they’re trapped in.

You can’t increase productivity in the workplace by squeezing individuals harder. You do it by:

  • Removing friction
  • Clarifying focus
  • Creating the conditions where people want to perform.

That means ditching outdated practices and building in true flexibility. Not just in hours, but in how people work best. The most productive companies we’ve visited—like Haier or Buurtzorg—didn’t "fix" people. They built environments where people didn’t need fixing in the first place.

At Corporate Rebels, we spotlight pioneers and corporate adventurers who do things differently and challenge the status quo. This spirit of innovation and exploration breeds an environment that naturally enhances productivity. 

So, you want to improve company productivity? Start designing smarter.


How to create a culture where great work happens naturally

Forget pizza Fridays, free fruit, and other "perks." If you want to increase productivity in the workplace, build a culture where great work is the default—not the exception.

That means designing a system where trust replaces control, clarity kills confusion, and people feel a deep sense of purpose.

In high-performing teams, productivity comes from autonomy, belonging, and meaning. When people know why their work matters and feel trusted to deliver it their way, the results speak for themselves.

Want to improve company productivity? Stop trying to motivate people with deadlines and dashboards. Start building a culture that energizes people by design.

The most productive workplaces we’ve studied—from Spotify to Semco—have created environments where great work happens naturally.

A positive and inclusive culture makes employees feel engaged, motivated, and ready to collaborate, all of which are key to getting things done efficiently.

When team members feel valued and supported, they're more likely to be dedicated to their work, leading to increased innovation and efficiency.

On the flip side, a toxic culture can cause disengagement, high turnover, and low morale, dragging productivity down.

Knowing how company culture affects productivity is vital for any organization looking to improve performance and grow. By fostering a healthy work environment, companies can truly unleash their potential and achieve amazing results.


How structure drives productivity

Organizational structure plays a big role in shaping the productivity of a company.

Traditional, hierarchical structures slow everything down: decisions bottleneck, communication gets distorted, and innovation suffocates under layers of approval. The result? Delays, disengagement, and a whole lot of wasted potential.

Flat, decentralized organizations consistently increase productivity in the workplace. Fewer layers mean faster decisions, clearer communication, and more autonomy for teams. People are trusted to act, not just follow orders. And when people have ownership, they deliver results that no KPI dashboard can manufacture.

Even better: flatter organizations are often less costly than hierarchies. Cut the middle layers, and you reduce costs and complexity. That’s more output with fewer inputs, which is the very definition of high workplace productivity.

At Corporate Rebels, we’ve seen this play out at the Dutch healthcare pioneer Buurtzorg with self-managing teams, the home appliances manufacturer Haier with the micro-enterprise model, and the German giant Bosch with cross-functional teams. They reimagined team structures. The payoff? More trust, more speed, and way more impact.


The link between happiness and productivity

At Corporate Rebels, we believe that job satisfaction is something to put on the agenda. Happiness isn’t just a feel-good factor. It can rocket-launch productivity.

Research by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School shows that happy workers are 13% more productive. That’s tangible output.

Happy teams get stuff done. Not because they're told to. But because they want to.

If you're serious about learning how to increase productivity in the workplace, you need to stop treating happiness like a side dish and start making it a strategic priority.

So what drives real workplace happiness? (Not ping-pong tables or Friday beers). It’s:

  • Autonomy over how you work
  • Belonging to a team that trusts and respects you
  • Purpose in doing work that actually matters

When you’ve got that magic combo, great work happens. People stop surviving the workweek and start showing up with energy, creativity, and drive. That’s how you improve company productivity—from the inside out.

To build a productive team, make them feel like they matter. Because when people thrive, so does your organization.

Challenges and solutions to build a productive team

Improving productivity is a common goal for many companies. It’s not without challenges.

Table of Content

Resistance to change

Implementing new strategies or technologies can be met with resistance from employees comfortable with current processes.

Disengagement

Disengaged team members stand in the way of productivity. Low energy leads to low outputs.

Inefficient meetings

Long, unproductive meetings can drain employees’ time and energy.

  • Solution: Limit meetings to necessary discussions and keep them short and focused. Go async. Use docs and recordings. Only meet when it truly matters. Get our Meetings Checklist and learn how to run better meetings.

Traditional workweek

The traditional five-day workweek may not be the most efficient use of time.

  • Solution: Consider alternative workweek structures, like the four-day workweek. Trials in the UK found that employees were able to maintain the same productivity levels while working four days a week. Trust people to manage their time.

Micromanagement

Micromanagement and control cripple initiative and slow down decision-making.

  • Solution: Shift from control to trust. Train leaders to coach, not dictate.

Lack of psychological safety

You can’t build a high-performing team if people are scared to speak up. Silence kills innovation, slows progress, and stifles creativity.

  • Solution: Create an environment where people feel safe to share their ideas and opinions. That means leaders must go first—share their own mistakes, ask for feedback, and invite disagreement. Recognize courage over compliance. Get practical tips in our free Psychological Safety Playbook.

Busywork and bloat

Productivity isn’t about being busy. It’s about delivering value. But many teams are drowning in tasks that look like work but add zero impact: weekly status decks no one reads, five-person approvals, and reports-for-the-sake-of-reports.

  • Solution: Audit everything. If a process, meeting, or report doesn’t create clear value, it goes. Period. Make it a norm to question the "why" behind every task. Progressive companies don’t ask people to work harder. They give them the space to work on what actually matters.

17 radical ways to increase productivity
(that actually work)

Forget corporate fluff. These are the real, time-tested ways to increase productivity in the workplace.

Each of them can help you improve company productivity by fixing systems, energizing teams, and ditching what doesn’t work.

Table of Content

1. Make communication transparent

Productivity dies in silos. Make communication open by default. When decisions, updates, and goals are visible to everyone, teams waste less time asking, chasing, or guessing and spend more time executing.

2. Try a four-day workweek

Companies all over the world are testing shorter workweeks and seeing either the same or higher output. Fewer days doesn’t mean less done. It means less waste and more energy.

3. Kill 50% of your meetings

Most meetings are bloated, unnecessary, and painfully unproductive. If it doesn’t have a clear purpose, outcome, or decision to be made, cancel it. Replace them with shared docs, async check-ins, or quick written updates. Give people their time back.

4. Default to deep work

Context-switching is the silent killer of productivity. Instead of jumping between tasks and tools all day, create blocks of focused, uninterrupted work time. This is where real value gets created.

5. Automate what possible

Still creating manual reports? Approving the same thing every week? Stop. Automate repetitive tasks so your people can focus on the work that actually matters. Automation isn’t just about speed, it’s also about attention and energy.

6. Give people a "why"

Work with no meaning leads to disengagement and low output. Connect daily tasks to a bigger mission or purpose. When people understand how their work creates value, they bring more creativity, ownership, and energy to the table.

7. Flatten the org chart

Too many layers mean slow decisions and unclear accountability. Flatter organizations reduce complexity and give teams more ownership. That leads to faster execution and fewer bottlenecks—two essential ingredients to improve company productivity.

8. Build or boost psychological safety

You can't innovate or even operate without it. If people are afraid to ask questions, admit mistakes, or offer dissenting views, you’ve got a productivity problem. Foster a culture where honest feedback and vulnerability are welcomed, not punished.

9. Focus on outcomes, not hours

Measuring performance by time spent is a lazy leadership habit. Instead, track what matters: results, outcomes, and impact. Give people clear goals and autonomy over how they get there. Trust over tracking always wins in the long run.

10. Embrace asynchronous work

Synchronous work slows things down and burns people out. Async workflows let people respond on their own time, work when they’re most focused, and create without being constantly interrupted. It's a game-changer for deep productivity.

11. Train leaders as coaches

Command-and-control leadership kills motivation. The best leaders know how to unlock potential. Train managers to support, guide, and empower their teams instead of hovering over every decision.

12. Cut the bloat

Processes that made sense five years ago are probably now dead weight. Audit every meeting, tool, report, and policy. If it doesn’t clearly create value, get rid of it. Subtraction, not addition, is often the fastest path to better output.

13. Build teams around autonomy

Micromanagement crushes productivity. Create clarity around goals, then step back and let people decide how to get there. The more freedom they have to experiment and own their work, the more they’ll produce.

14. Create a culture of experimentation

The highest-performing teams treat their ways of working like a product. They constantly iterate. Encourage small experiments, share what works, and talk openly about failures. That’s how progress becomes part of the culture.

15. Prioritize happiness at work

Don’t underestimate the emotional side of productivity. Happy, engaged employees don’t need to be pushed. They push themselves. Build a workplace where people feel valued, connected, and inspired, and you’ll watch output soar naturally.

16. Distribute decision-making

Endless decision loops are one of the biggest productivity killers. Waiting for buy-in from every layer slows things to a crawl. Instead, create clarity on who decides what and empower teams to move forward. Progressive companies use decision-making frameworks like advice processes to move fast without creating chaos.

17. Design for energy, not just efficiency

Burned-out teams can't produce great work. Design your workflows, schedules, and rituals around human energy, not mechanical output. That means respecting breaks, encouraging rest, and allowing space for reflection. When you protect energy, you protect performance.

Improve your company productivity

In progressive organizations, enhanced productivity is almost a side effect. It's rarely a goal on its own. That's why we advocate for designing better systems.

The world’s most progressive companies don’t work harder. They work differently. They build cultures of trust, autonomy, and purpose. They remove the noise and double down on what actually matters. They don’t settle for the status quo—they rebel against it.

So if you’re serious about learning how to increase productivity in the workplace, you’ve got two choices:

  • Keep applying band-aid fixes and hope for different results.
  • Or redesign your way of working and join the movement that’s already doing it.

Ready to make the bold move?

  • Join our Masterclass: Progressive Organizational Design. Learn how to build and scale high-performing, human-centered organizations—from structure to culture to systems
  • Join our exclusive Membership. Connect with thousands of professionals reimagining the way we work.
  • Already part of a progressive organization? Start or join a Rebel Cell in your country. Collaborate, share wins, and shape the future of work together.
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