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Productivity doesn’t just affect output – it determines whether an operation thrives, survives, or falls by the wayside. But while most organisations know what their targets are, many struggle to understand why they’re consistently falling short.
On World Productivity Day (20 June), it’s worth asking some hard questions. Are your people set up for success? Do they have clarity, support and structure? Or are they being held back by unseen skills, cultural and leadership gaps?
We’ve worked with numerous large organisations across Africa and have seen the same five productivity pitfalls show up time and again. The good news? Each one is fixable – with the right mindset, toolsets and skillets, of course.
Here are five of the leading reasons your team might not be hitting their targets:
- Poor planning
Too often, planning is treated as a frontline leader issue. But in reality, poor planning cascades from the top. We’ve seen mining operations where the daily plan changes hourly, where departments aren’t aligned, and where supervisors are set up to fail because the foundation is broken.
Planning should be consistent, cross-functional, and grounded in operational reality. Without it, even your best supervisors will end up reacting rather than leading. Productivity suffers not always because of poor execution – but because the plan was never solid to begin with.
- A lack of psychological safety
In many operations, people are afraid to speak up. They fear blame, victimisation or being labelled a troublemaker. This silencing has serious consequences; from avoidable incidents to disengaged teams and missed innovation.
We’ve walked onto sites where employees haven’t felt safe enough to raise concerns in years. But until there is space for feedback, challenge and honest conversation, nothing improves. Creating a culture of psychological safety means that your team feel safe to speak up. We’ve seen a clear link between psychological and physical safety – once people feel heard and are able to voice concerns, the likelihood of safety incidents tends to decline as well.
- A culture of firefighting
When everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. Many frontline leaders spend their days reacting: chasing down last minute issues, fixing breakdowns, covering absenteeism. But firefighting isn’t leadership – it’s survival.
Firefighting leaves no room for planning, problem-solving or team engagement. And when the same issues keep surfacing shift after shift, it signals a deeper gap in capacity and support. Supervisors need to move from reactive to proactive – and that requires training, coaching and trust in the system.
- No recognition of effort
People need to feel that their work matters. Yet in many work environments, recognition is missing, or worse, reserved only for crisis management. When good work goes unnoticed, morale drops and effort decreases.
Recognition doesn’t have to be expensive or grand. It needs to be regular, specific and authentic. When people are seen, they care more. And when they care more, they perform better.
- Poor goal-setting and lack of accountability
If you ask your teams what success looks like, can they answer? In many operations, targets are unclear, inconsistent or poorly communicated. This leads to confusion, misalignment, and ultimately, blame culture.
We always say: you can’t hold someone accountable if you haven’t set the goal. But once the goal is clear and owned, accountability becomes easier. Clarity leads to focus and focus leads to better results.
In conclusion, before you ask why people aren’t performing, ask whether you’ve given them the conditions to succeed.
By Arjen de Bruin, Group CEO at OIM Consulting
