Productivity improves when “not necessary” becomes an acceptable conclusion.

Most systems can only add. New requests, new processes, new obligations, all arriving with a presumption that they must be accommodated somehow. The single most useful thing you can restore is the ability to conclude that something does not need doing at all, and to say so without it being a failure.

Practise the conclusion on something small this week. Decline one request with a clear no rather than a delay. Notice what actually happens, which is usually very little.