Any improvements made anywhere besides the bottleneck are an illusion.
Being able to take needless work out of the system is more important than being able to put more work into the system.
We need to create a culture that reinforces the value of taking risks and learning from failure and the need for repetition and practice to create mastery.
Something seems wrong in a world where half the e-mail messages sent are urgent. Can everything really be that important?
Practice creates habits, and habits create mastery of any process or skill.