The South West Productivity through People Programme is being run by Bath University School of Management, with great sponsorship from EDF, BaE, Rolls-Royce and Babcock. I spent the day with the delegates on Wednesday working through the seven aspects of the Benchmark Assessment to understand:

1. The behaviours and characteristics of Great Leadership
2. What an Enabling Culture looks and feels like
3. The importance of attracting, developing and retaining the Best People
4. The need to Align the Organisation to institutionalise best practice
5. The critical role of driving broad Innovation to meet Customer needs
6. The power of simple employee Recognition for contribution and Performance
7. That effective Skills Utilisation is key in building and releasing potential capability

The latest government data suggests a 16% gap in UK productivity against the average for the G7 countries; with UK productivity flatlining since the 2008 financial crisis. Between a quarter and a third of the UK’s productivity shortfall is attributed to Management processes. It’s great to see future leaders investing their time, supported by their businesses, who are determined and enthusiastic to learn and explore what they can do to close the gap.