Capacity in the Headlines
A different lens on the stories shaping work and life..
Each month, Capacity in the Headlines takes a current story and looks beneath the obvious headline.
What does it tell us about human capacity?
What conditions are shaping what we’re seeing?
And what becomes visible when we stop looking only at the outcome?
A monthly perspective on the stories that reveal how capacity is being shaped in the real world.
Looking beyond the headline
The stories making the news often focus on the outcome — burnout, absence, disengagement, performance, change, pressure.
Capacity in the Headlines looks underneath.
Each month, we take one story and explore what it reveals about the capacity people have available, the conditions shaping it and what we might see differently when we look beyond the obvious explanation.
Latest Article
SEPTEMBER 2026 When being busier gets in the way of doing the work.
45% of employees say they’re too busy to deliver meaningful results.
That finding from Korn Ferry’s new Workforce 2026 report stopped me.
Not because it’s particularly surprising.
But because of what it tells us about the way we think about performance.
The same research found that 62% of employees have experienced significantly heavier workloads over the last two years.
61% say they’re now carrying the responsibilities of more than one role.
44% say they’re stretched beyond their capabilities.
We might look at those numbers and see a workforce doing more.
But that 45% suggests something else.
More activity isn’t necessarily creating more value.
At some point, asking people to do more starts reducing their ability to do the work that matters.
💭 The Capacity Question
Are we trying to get more from people — or creating the conditions that allow them to do their best work?
🔍 The Capacity Perspective
We understand this instinctively when it comes to almost every other living thing.
If a plant isn’t thriving, we look at its conditions.
Does it have enough water?
Enough light?
The right soil?
Space for its roots?
We don’t assume the plant needs to try harder.
And we certainly don’t send it on resilience training. 😉
We change the conditions.
Yet at work, when performance starts to struggle, our attention often goes straight to the person.
Do they need more training?
More motivation?
Better time management?
Greater resilience?
But capability is only part of the picture.
Someone can be extraordinarily capable and still not have enough capacity available to do their best work.
Because capacity is shaped by the conditions around them.
Workload.
Recovery.
Resources.
Role clarity.
Support.
Autonomy.
Priorities.
The systems they have to navigate simply to get the job done.
That’s Capacity Infrastructure.
The conditions that enable human beings to use the capability they already have.
And there’s another fascinating finding in the Korn Ferry research.
51% of individual contributors say AI has improved efficiency — but 52% of AI-weary workers say using it has increased their workload. Korn Ferry’s conclusion is that organisations need to rethink how work itself is designed rather than simply adding more technology.
That’s important.
Because creating efficiency doesn’t automatically create human capacity.
If every bit of capacity we release is immediately filled with more work, we’ve created space — and consumed it at exactly the same time.
Perhaps that’s why the 45% figure matters so much.
We keep asking:
How can we get people to do more?
When perhaps the more useful question is:
What conditions would allow people to do their best work?
Because we’d never expect a plant to thrive in poor conditions.
So why do we expect it from people?
What do you think? What capacity story have you spotted in the headlines this week?
#CapacityInTheHeadlines #CapacityInfrastructure #HumanCapacityManagement #FutureOfWork #Calerae
Article: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1969753/half-employees-busy-deliver-meaningful-work-survey-finds
2026 Articles
AUGUST 2026 Poor workplace health is costing UK employers around £85 billion a year.
The figures are eye-opening.
Higher sickness absence.
Lost productivity.
Presenteeism.
Recruitment costs.
The financial impact is enormous.
? The Capacity Question
If we’re spending billions dealing with the consequences…
Are we investing enough time understanding what’s creating them?
> The Capacity Perspective
When costs are this high, it’s natural to ask:
“What else can we introduce?”
Another wellbeing initiative.
Another training programme.
Another support service.
Those things can all have real value.
But what if the bigger opportunity isn’t introducing something new…
What if it’s diagnosing the problem more accurately?
Because solving the wrong problem is expensive.
Not just financially.
In time.
In effort.
In frustration.
And in the people who are still struggling despite everyone’s best intentions.
Perhaps the question isn’t:
“What should we do next?”
Perhaps it’s:
“What problem are we actually trying to solve?”
That’s where meaningful change begins.
What do you think? Are organisations spending too much time choosing solutions and not enough time diagnosing the problem?
Original article: Keep Britain Working Review https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keep-britain-working-review-final-report/keep-britain-working-final-report