ReThink Productivity Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat We take a look at May’s retail and economic signals, where the mood stays low but the sales numbers finally lift. We tease out how heat, online shopping, and where people choose to spend time reshape the outlook for high streets, retail parks, and seaside towns. • Consumer confidence stuck at m...

Send us Fan Mail What separates guesswork from actual, sustainable efficiency? Professional training. In this episode, our resident experts— Sue , Simon & James —are joined by special guest Phil to break down why credible productivity work must start with the right foundations.  They dive into how the ReThink Academy is shaping the next generation of industry experts through our four core cour...

Send us Fan Mail Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat April’s numbers look grim on the surface, but Easter timing shifts spending into March and distorts the year on year story. We discuss the real signals behind falling footfall and softer sales, then ask what rising costs and uncertainty are doing to jobs, confidence and everyday choices.  • Eas...

Send us Fan Mail We recorded our first live ReThink Productivity podcast at the Retail Technology Show after-show party, talking candidly about what retail tech is actually doing for productivity right now. Chris Chandler and Steve Young share what is changing with AI, wage pressure, training, and the practical realities of running stores on land and at sea. • AI at the show feeling more integrate...

Send us Fan Mail We gave Notebook LM our first ReThink Productivity Retail Report NotebookLM digs into why shops can look perfectly staffed and still fail you at the checkout or on the shop floor, then trace the problem back to how retail measures efficiency. We use the ReThink Productivity Retail Report 2026 to show how a push for 100% utilisation creates a capacity cap that burns out colleagues...

Send us Fan Mail Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat We read the March 2026 retail and economic data against a month shaped by war and an early Easter, where strong headlines hide weaker high street reality • March footfall rising year on year but flattered by a weak 2025 comparison • BRC sales growth driven mainly by food as households buy ahead...

Send us Fan Mail Sue , Simon , & James share the top-line findings from ReThink Productivity Future Retail Ready Benchmarking Report and explain how a £6.25bn opportunity could be unlocked. They walk through six golden rules to improve store performance, protect customer experience, and avoid hidden workload that quietly harms sales. • Why retailers feel the squeeze after the ‘easy wins’ are g...

Send us Fan Mail Hear directly from our experts— Sue , Simon , & James —who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights We share the latest ReThink Academy training updates and why we built courses we wish we’d had when we first stepped into productivity and workload modelling roles. We also unpack how measuring work can remove customer friction, from mobil...

Send us Fan Mail Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat They break down why February 2026 turns into a tough month for UK retail, with record rain dragging down footfall and high street sales. They also zoom out to consumer confidence, inflation pressures, and the April policy changes that could reshape hiring and costs. • Record wet weather and why...

Send us Fan Mail We gave NotebookLM our Productivity Pulse podcasts from November 2025 to February 2026 with Sue , Simon , & James and this is what it came up with... We follow the stop-watch data behind everyday queues and show how “efficient” labour models can still create predictable chaos at peak demand. We trace how wage pressure, algorithmic scheduling, and physical layout decisions resh...

Send us Fan Mail Hear directly from our experts— Sue , Simon , & James —who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights We dig into stock to shelf benchmarking and reveal how much replenishment time is lost to movement and returns. We share early findings and details of our benchmarking report and Retail Technology Show plans • Early look at our retail benc...

Send us Fan Mail We gave NotebookLM our podcasts from November 2025 to February 2026 with Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and this is what it came up with... We test a hard question: are UK retail’s brutal numbers a structural reset or a severe cyclical slump? We argue both sides with data on jobs, wages, footfall, discounts, online share, and consumer psychology, and find common ground on...

Send us Fan Mail   Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat A cautious consumer shows up in January with fewer trips but bigger baskets, while retail parks gain and high streets hold on. We dig into youth unemployment, wage compression, AI’s impact on entry roles, and why productivity must carry the next phase of retail. • January footfall near flat w...

Send us Fan Mail Hear directly from our experts— Sue , Simon , & James —who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights. This month they are joined by special guest Ed Thompson   We unpack how quick service restaurants (QSR) cut through rising costs and sharper peaks by separating delivery from dine‑in, scaling kiosks, and engineering seconds out of core ta...

Send us Fan Mail We explore with ReThink Productivity’s Simon Woodfield and Ed Thompson how MTM drives method improvement, not just time measurement, and share real case studies across logistics, retail food, and warehousing. We show how operator involvement, ergonomics, and clear coding lead to standard work, stronger business cases, and better rollouts. • Method determines the time, not the stop...

Send us Fan Mail Building on the success of footfall insights we broaden the conversation with the Basket & Barometer podcast. Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat We unpack December’s retail data: footfall fell most in shopping centres, high streets held up better, and sales rose only because food prices stayed high. Confidence is inching hig...

Send us Fan Mail We dig into how MTM turns micro motions into fair, consistent time standards with ReThink Productivity’s Simon Woodfield and Ed Thompson and when to use MTM1, MTM2, or UAS for different kinds of work. We share how video, TMUs, and peer review remove bias and help teams set reliable, safe methods. • MTM motion categories and why they matter • Video-based analysis for repeatability...

Send us Fan Mail Hear directly from our experts— Sue , Simon , & James —who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights  In this episode they discuss why parcel pickup times vary from 27 seconds to three minutes on average and show how storage design, retrieval systems, and colleague headsets drive speed, safety, and sales. The chat covers the sales uplift...

Send us Fan Mail We unpack Method Time Measurement (MTM) with ReThink Productivity’s Simon Woodfield and Ed Thompson , from its 1940s roots to modern use with motion capture and VR. The chat explains how MTM coding works, and why fair, consistent standards matter. • Origins of MTM • Motion codes, influence factors and TMUs explained • When to use MTM versus a stopwatch • Hybrid approaches for fixe...

Send us Fan Mail Building on the success of footfall insights we broaden the conversation with the Basket & Barometer podcast. Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat We dig into why Black Friday footfall held up while November spending slumped, and what that split means for December. We talk inflation turning to deflation in fashion and furnitur...

Send us Fan Mail Hear directly from our experts— Sue , Simon , & James —who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights  We unpack the wage rise headlines and the quiet costs they trigger up the ladder, then move to peak‑time realities: queues, break timing, and the real use of self‑checkout. We finish with fast wins in quick‑serve layouts and why adoption...

Send us Fan Mail We gave NotebookLM our record breaking blog to see what happened when they turned it into a podcast... We examine how modern time and motion studies expose hidden waste, translate seconds into savings, and protect sustainable pace. From Taylor and the Gilbreths to sensors and benchmarks, we map the methods, the maths, and the immediate actions that cut costs without cutting qualit...

Send us Fan Mail Building on the success of footfall insights we broaden the conversation with the Basket & Barometer podcast. Diane Wehrle CEO at Rendle Intelligence and Insights joins Simon for their monthly chat In this episode we cover why average transaction value now matters more than footfall, and how Black Friday has shifted the peak. We share sector signals, consumer confidence trends...

Send us Fan Mail Productivity Pulse Episode 1  Hear directly from our experts— Sue , Simon , & James —who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights  We dig into why efficiency swings across sites, how that volatility hurts peak service, and what workload models can do to stabilise performance. We also show how role drift reduces leadership time and how st...

Send us Fan Mail 🚨 Podcast Reboot Alert! The ReThink Productivity Podcast is Back—and Smarter Than Ever! 🚀 We're thrilled to announce the official reboot of the ReThink Productivity Podcast with a brand-new format and a commitment to delivering high-impact, actionable insights twice a month Our new focus is simple: Less Noise, More Intelligence We’ll now be releasing two essential episodes...