When you think about lost productivity, you might immediately envision the ubiquitous, blue “f”. While Facebook, personal web browsing and general laziness are big time wasters at work, you can’t place all the blame on employees. Leaders, operations and outdated processes are very often also to blame. Check out these stats…

The highest-performing 10% of workers tend to work for 52 minutes followed by a 17-minute break. (Source: DeskTime) Tweet that stat!

So maybe next time you have to break up a water cooler chat about “The craziness that will be the Beyonce Formation Tour presale”, (which, who hasn’t had to this week?) Consider how productive your team has been lately. If you’re not sure, then the water cooler gathering is the least of your worries. On the other hand…

23.4% of workers cited socializing with co-workers as the second leading office distraction. (Source: TrendHunter) Tweet that stat!

Talk about knowing when and how to strike a balance! So you want to give them the autonomy of breaks to increase productivity, but you also have to be able to know when to reel it in. The key is to always have a finger on the pulse of the productivity of your team. That’s leadership.

Happy employees are 12% more productive. (Source: University of Warwick) Tweet that Stat!

How’s your employee recognition program working for ya?

23% of workers believe that time spent in meetings is a waste. (Source: Harris Poll and CareerBuilder) Tweet that stat!

How productive are your meetings? Are you using all of the tools at your disposal to reduce the number of, and time spent in meetings? If you’re having to hold meetings about the same topics, tasks or issues, perhaps an aging process needs to be addressed.

An average of $1,800 per employee, annually is spent on unnecessary emails. (Source: Atlassian ) Tweet that stat!

The majority of organizations we work with try to replace project or workflow management with email. It does not work! Sure, you could eventually get to Texas on a bike, but there are far better mediums to get there, right? That’s the difference between email and custom workflow software -A to B in the most efficient way.

The average worker spends 1.8 hours each day searching for and gathering information. (Source: McKinsey) Tweet that stat!

When is the last time you revisited your processes and how your information is being stored, organized and accessed? Odds are, it’s time to consider investing in a custom database.

As leaders, we can’t always pass the buck when it comes to lost productivity. Sometimes we have to look at the tools, processes and support we’ve made available to them. It’s not always easy to spot an archaic or inefficient process because we get comfortable and stuck in our ways. But, “That’s how we’ve always done it” is a very dangerous mindset.