Recognising patterns

If you followed a piece of work from start to finish, where would it stall - and why?

Momentum isn't about speed. It's about whether the system carries work forward or absorbs the energy people put into it. These prompts help you see where flow exists and where friction hides.

Listen for

• When you ask people what slows them down, do they point to the work itself - or to everything that surrounds it? Approvals, meetings, unclear handoffs, chasing information?
• When teams describe a good week, are they describing output and impact - or getting through the backlog?
• Listen to the verbs people use. "Building, creating, delivering" - or "waiting, chasing, aligning, updating"?
• When something needs doing urgently, do people describe cutting through the system - or working around it? Workarounds are the system telling you where it's broken.

Watch for

• How many layers of approval does a typical piece of work pass through? Could any of those layers be removed without meaningful risk?
• When work stalls between teams, does someone own the handoff - or does it sit in no-one's-land until someone chases?
• Do your meetings advance work or report on it? Count how many meetings this week produced a decision versus how many were updates that could have been an email.
• When a team delivers something fast and well, was that because the system supported them - or because they found a way around it?

Measure

• What proportion of people's time goes to the core work they were hired for versus coordination, reporting, and internal administration?
• Pick a recent decision. How long from the moment it was needed to the moment it was made - and where in the chain did it stall?
• How many recurring meetings exist? What percentage of regular attendees would say each one is necessary?

Notice

• Is there a consistent bottleneck - a team, a role, a stage - where work predictably slows? That's not a people problem. It's a system signal.
• Does finishing one piece of work naturally set up the next - or does every new task require rebuilding context, reforming teams, seeking fresh approvals?
• Where have people built informal routes around the official process? Those workarounds are a map of where friction lives. Follow them.

People are rarely unproductive. They're often productive at things that don't create value. The question isn't whether people are working hard enough. It's whether the system lets their effort reach the outcome.