We’re always looking for ways to improve productivity, both personally and with our teams. Often, this quest focuses on time management techniques like the Pomodoro method, Getting Things Done (GTD), and other productivity hacks. However, despite these tools, many employees still feel overwhelmed with tasks and struggle to focus on their priorities. The reality is, these individual productivity tips don’t always work in a busy workplace.

The reason isn’t that these methods are flawed—it’s because most people don’t work in isolation. In complex organizations, interdependencies between team members often have the biggest impact on productivity. You can be well-organized, but with the constant influx of emails, instant messages, and communication tools like Slack and LinkedIn, it’s hard to keep up.

As W. Edwards Deming argued in his book Out of the Crisis, 94% of most problems and improvement opportunities belong to the system, not the individual. So while personal productivity hacks can help, real change happens when improvements are made at the system level.

How to Improve Productivity in Teams

1. Make Work Visible

In many workplaces, tasks are hidden—either buried in people’s computers or stuck in their heads. This lack of visibility makes it difficult to know who’s working on what or if someone is overloaded with tasks. Using task management tools like Trello, Asana, or Airtable can help make every task visible by assigning cards to specific team members. This not only helps balance workloads but also eliminates the need for countless status-check emails and unnecessary meetings.

Similarly, making downtime visible is just as important. Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow found that scheduling predictable time off (like email blackout periods or uninterrupted work blocks) improved both job satisfaction and work-life balance without sacrificing performance. Visibility helps teams understand what colleagues are working on, allowing for better collaboration and communication.

2. Set Clear Priorities for Urgent Issues

Think of the Bat Signal—the way Gotham City called for Batman during an emergency. Unfortunately, many organizations don’t have a clear system for indicating urgency. Without guidelines on what channel to use for emergencies, employees are forced to constantly check multiple platforms to avoid missing important updates, which kills productivity.

To fix this, companies should establish clear rules for communication channels—one for urgent issues and another for non-urgent ones. This allows employees to focus on their work without the constant distraction of checking every digital platform.

Conclusion

While personal productivity hacks like time management techniques are useful, they’re not enough in a complex workplace environment. The real solution lies in fixing the system by making work visible and setting clear priorities for urgent tasks. By focusing on system-level changes, teams can achieve greater efficiency, reduce stress, and improve overall productivity.

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