Signal 43% rank productivity their top priority and two-thirds call their organization overly complex

Summary

McKinsey's 2026 survey shows productivity has become the main challenge on executives' minds. Forty-three percent of executives name it their top priority. Sixty-one percent say they feel high pressure to deliver further gains. Two-thirds describe their organizations as overly complex and inefficient. The report argues that familiar remedies such as structural redesigns, cost cuts, and flatter hierarchies are producing diminishing returns because they leave processes, behaviors, and data silos unchanged. It uses these findings to make the case for shifting attention from structure to the way work actually gets done.