Why Does Everything Take So Long?

Have you ever looked at a task and thought, "There is absolutely no reason this should take three weeks"? Most of us have.

When something takes longer than expected, we tend to focus on the work itself. We ask whether people have enough training, whether they need better tools, or whether someone dropped the ball. Sometimes that's true. But sometimes the work isn't taking long at all. Sometimes the waiting is.

Work gets handed off. Then it waits.

An email gets sent. Then it waits.

A decision needs to be made. Then it waits.

Information is needed from a customer. Then it waits.

See a pattern here? The actual work may only take a few minutes. But the process in total can take days.

One of my favorite things to do when looking at a process is to ask a simple question:

How much time is spent working, and how much time is spent waiting?

The answer is often surprising. I've seen situations where organizations were working very hard to make people faster when the real problem was that the work kept getting stuck between steps. Nobody was doing anything wrong; the process simply wasn't flowing.

That's why I like to make work visible before trying to fix it. Once you can see where the waiting occurs, you can start asking better questions.

Not "How do we make people work faster?" But "Why is the work waiting here?"

Those are very different conversations. And one of them is usually a lot more productive.

This week, pick one piece of work and follow it from start to finish. It could be a customer order, an invoice, a quote, a project request, or a support ticket.

Don't focus on how long people spend working on it. Focus on how long it spends waiting. Write down each time it stops moving and why.

You may discover that the biggest opportunities for improvement aren't in the work itself. They're in the gaps between the work.

This week, pick one piece of work and follow it from start to finish. It could be a customer order, an invoice, a quote, a project request, or a support ticket.

Don't focus on how long people spend working on it. Focus on how long it spends waiting. Write down each time it stops moving and why.

You may discover that the biggest opportunities for improvement aren't in the work itself. They're in the gaps between the work.

Healthy Flow. Healthy Business.