Why Work Slips Through the Cracks (and It’s Not a People Problem)

As with any family, we run our dishwasher with a fairly consistent frequency. Every other day, usually after dinner, the last of the dishes are stowed and one of us says “We need to run the dish washer.” The other person agrees. Because I’m cleaning up after dinner most of the time, I’m usually the one who makes the inevitable statement.

And I’m the one who frequently forgets to actually start the thing.

It’s not because I think or expect someone else will do it. I get distracted and forget until the following morning when I go to put breakfast dishes away.

This scenario plays out in businesses across the world daily. A statement is made about what needs to be done and then it slips through the cracks.

“We need to follow up with Client A”

Assumptions abound. Am I supposed to do that? Are you? I’m going to do it once I get back to my desk. There’s no way I’ll get distracted and forget about this conversation within 30 seconds.

Enterprise level companies have large project tracking software, project managers, and the expectation that everyone will figure out a system for themselves so they don’t fail and lose their jobs.

Smaller businesses don’t have that luxury.

And before you start making even more assumptions, whenever you, or one of your employees, drops the ball … it’s likely not because anyone is incompetent. It’s not that anyone’s lazy either. And even though the logical next step is to think that there’s something being lost in translation, in the conversation about the work, that’s probably not it either.

Is it possible that you’re incompetent, lazy, and a terrible communicator?

Absolutely. It’s unlikely, but it’s possible.

The more likely scenario is that you have a systems problem. The task only lives in your head, or it hovers in the air between you and whoever you were talking to. But you don’t care about the conversation, you care that work isn’t getting done.

Sometimes communication isn’t enough.

Usually, when we think about efficiency we’re thinking about taking a process that takes 15 steps and reducing it to 3 steps. Or maybe we’re thinking of accomplishing the same tasks, doing the same amount of work, but only taking half of the time to do it. You’re more efficient so you’re able to get more done, manage more items concurrently.

And while that feels great (or, if you’re being honest with yourself, it feels terrible) it’s not always as simple as that. Efficiency can mean many other things too.

Like, knowing what’s currently in motion at any given moment.

Knowing who owns what.

Knowing that things will surface when they’re stuck.

Project managers serve that role in larger corporations. They either own it themselves or they know who does (and they’re keeping track of it on their own), and they’re the ones who are tapping you on the shoulder when the poodoo hits the fan.

Again though, in your smaller firm you likely don’t have a shoulder tapping project manager so you need something different. You need a lightweight system that fills that role.

Every task needs a clear and singular owner. A visible place to live, and a specific point in time when it will be reviewed. How you accomplish this is up to you, just don’t go down any SaaS (Software as a Service) rabbit holes and try to solve your problem with money. A complicated software solution shouldn’t be your first step.

It could be as simple as a task board, or standing check-ins at a regular cadence.

Whatever tool or system you put in place, embrace and support it fully. That structure will deliver your top priorities, close open loops in your workflows, and invisibly satisfy your customers. It slices, it dices, it juliennes fries! It will not break! Will not break! (It might break, but it’ll be easy to fix if it does).

Most importantly it is the structure within which you will execute your strategy. It will aid you in your delegation, and give you additional confidence that no matter how each of your hand-offs end up you’ll always know where everything is at, who owns it, and when you’ll see it next.

This week, identify one thing that regularly doesn’t meet expectations or slips through the cracks. Decide where it will live. Make it clear who the owner is, and decide when it will be reviewed.

You don’t have to subscribe to the latest task tracking app or undertake a major systemic overhaul.

Next week we’ll take this a step further and discuss how the cadence, or rhythm of these systems serves an important role. Cadence is what makes this stick.