Key points
- Launching a productivity improvement program doesn’t require major budgets or consultants. Start small.
- Ask your teams where they see time wasted.
- Tackle problems that can be fixed quickly before diving into larger reforms.
- Leverage your relationship within your advisor to unlock opportunities from others
Productivity is often talked about in big, complex terms. Yet for the middle market, real progress does not come from chasing the latest framework or tool. It comes from focusing on practical steps that make everyday work easier.
The reality is simple. Middle market businesses do not need best practice systems. They need practical and effective ones.
The perfect vs practical divide
Large corporates can afford to chase best practice and are expected to. The owners aren’t in the business. So they have to bear the cost that comes with vigilance over other people’s money. They have dedicated optimisation teams, change management specialists and budgets that stretch to enterprise-wide system overhauls. They can spend months mapping current state processes and designing future models.
But middle market businesses operate differently. They need solutions that work today, not an entire overhaul, and something that staff will actually adopt, and bring practical improvements quickly to the business.
This is where better practice beats best practice. Small, realistic changes, built on honest conversations often deliver more value than elaborate transformation programs that never quite get off the ground.
The power of listening
One of the most overlooked productivity tools is also the simplest: listening. Not to industry gurus, but to the people who actually do the work.
Staff know where time is lost. They see the bottlenecks, the duplicated processes and the systems that don’t connect. They experience the frustration of manual workarounds and unnecessary approvals. But they rarely get asked.
When we tested this theory through a simple internal exercise, we skipped consultants and diagnostic tools. Instead, we asked one question: What are the dumb things we do?
It’s not just about time. It’s about decisions that don’t make sense, that waste time and money. Business leaders using this approach typically get overwhelming responses. Sometimes hundreds of comments reveal dozens of small problems. From meeting inefficiencies to outdated systems, they’re typically solvable problems.
Small problems, real gains
The most valuable outcome from such practices is not a single big breakthrough, but a series of small, practical wins. Some teams lose time connecting to video conferencing systems, solved through better IT support and standardised meeting room setups – minimal cost, hours saved each week.
Others flag approval processes requiring three signatures for minor purchases, resolved by revising authority levels and trusting team leaders to decide – implementation time measured in days, not months. None of these changes are revolutionary, but together they remove friction, free up time and help people focus on meaningful work.
Beyond internal listening
Listening shouldn’t stop with staff. Successful leaders actively seek perspectives from peers, advisors and industry networks.
Your view is limited to the environment you operate in. Reaching out expands it. Other businesses face similar challenges and often land on creative solutions. Peer networks, industry groups and trusted advisors can spark new approaches you may not have considered.
The key is approaching these conversations with curiosity rather than defensiveness. Ask specific questions. Share openly. Most leaders are more than willing to exchange what works and what doesn’t.
Walking the floor
Data and dashboards provide numbers, but they don’t provide context. Productivity improvements often come from leaders who stay connected to how work actually happens.
Formal process maps describe how things should work. Reality is usually messier. Staff develop workarounds, create informal processes and quickly spot which reports are useful – and which aren’t.
This knowledge emerges only through regular, informal conversations. Leaders who walk the floor and engage with their teams gain the perspective they need to make smarter improvement decisions.
The middle market advantage
Middle market businesses actually hold natural advantages in productivity improvement. Decisions can be made quickly. Change can be implemented without layers of approval. Your teams generally have closer relationships with leadership.
The challenge is to recognise these strengths and use them, rather than trying to copy the approaches of much larger organisations.
Perspective over perfection
Simply put, productivity lies in shifting from a mindset from perfection to practicality. Stop chasing benchmarks that don’t fit your context. Start listening to the people who know your business best.
Productivity doesn’t begin with glossy strategy documents. It begins with the right questions, an openness to honest answers and a willingness to act. Sometimes, the most powerful tool for change is simply listening.
