Most organisations were set up for a slower world. The technology has moved on. The way work gets done hasn’t. Here’s how that happens, and where we look.
It happens slowly, for good reasons, in every organisation. Then the original reason disappears and nobody notices.
Something is slow, expensive or impossible.
People find a sensible way around it.
The workaround is written down and taught.
Roles, teams and systems are built around it.
The structure stays. That’s the opportunity.
Reporting cycles, approval chains and planning calendars were built around slow information.
Queues, escalation paths and specialist bottlenecks exist to ration expertise.
Re-keying, reconciling and whole roles in between exist because systems were islands.
One-size-fits-all services were a cost decision. That trade-off has changed.
We look at every part, and at how they connect. The biggest possibilities usually sit between them.
Who does the work, and what they know that isn’t written down.
How work is meant to happen, and why it was designed that way.
How work actually moves day to day, including the workarounds.
What you know, where it lives, and whether you can trust it.
The tools people use, and what they’re really used for.
How technology and information are structured and governed.
How information moves between systems, or doesn’t.
How decisions are made, and how risk is managed.
What the organisation can really do today, and what it’s missing.
Marked in magenta: the three connections where we most often find trapped value.