Not infrequently I come across companies where everyone is really busy and works hard, but somehow things just aren’t moving forward as quickly as they should. Usually these companies have a burn rate that is too high and/or unsustainable.
This can feel like an intractable problem – everyone is working so hard after all, and it isn’t just a case of cutting some unwarranted activity e.g. too much marketing spend.
Sometimes I’m sure it is intractable. But often it isn’t. If these symptoms are present the issue is cultural/managerial and very fixable (not necessarily easy though).
- Too many internal meetings
- Too many people attending meetings (particularly external)
- Delegation not happening properly
- Limited sharing of information between departments
- Lack of trust between members of the executive team
- Unclear or disputed control of process
- Too much re-work (e.g. re-writing of roadmaps and RFPs)
I hope this is useful. Certainly it would have helped me catch a few problems a bit sooner.
