Perhaps Quick Solutions Are Not the Solution: What is Organizational Efficiency Actually?

In numerous process mapping or current state evaluation exercises, I have observed some interesting behavior. I’ve seen individuals struggling to discuss the current state of things; they only can speak to ideas for solutions (new technology, a new hire, etc.). Similarly, in root cause analysis workshops, clients often come in with solutions before they are even able to discuss the issue.  

Are these tendencies for solutioning quickly inherently bad? No. There are a lot of good signs of change willingness, in fact. However, before you’ve had the chance to truly understand the root issue and understand the current process and how it impacts various teams, landing on a solution prematurely can actually cost the company more – in time, in money, and in frustration. 

Often times, leaders equate being quick to solution to organizational efficiency. This is an oversimplification. Before you can successfully make quick business decisions, you should be sure you have the following: 

1. An understanding of the current process, including the “whys” behind any process, issue, or bottleneck. 

2. A future state process recommendation that factors in the impact to individuals, teams, and the organization. 

   
   

Too frequently, leaders see the “problem” in current processes only from their lens or from the lens of a “squeaky wheel,” but they do not see the full picture. You need the full picture of today and a glimpse into the future in order to successfully make decisions. 

Let’s look at an example... 

A sales manager may be escalating an issue from the sales perspective to leadership. “Right now, our we have unnecessary required fields that we have to fill out upon a deal closing. We are wasting around 15-20 minutes per deal to add in fields like the clients’ full address that we never use again.”  

After hearing this, an uninformed leader may think they are being helpful and decisive when they say, “Tell the CRM admin to remove those requirements.”  

Done. Easy, right? Not so fast.  

Say the next time sales closes a deal, they’re thrilled at how much time they’ve saved. That is until the fulfillment team reaches out in a panic. “I just got a notification of a deal,” they may say, “but I have none of the information I need about the product specifications nor billing and shipment info to fulfill this.” And that’s assuming they actually know the right person to go to with this issue. More than likely, they escalate it to someone else who spends their time trying to understand where a process went wrong before finding the right person to troubleshoot. 

Then someone in marketing may be looking to complete their mail campaign and running into a similar issue of missing data.  

Cue chaos ensuing. This initially may have cost the sales rep an extra 20 minutes and now it has escalated to several teams and individuals (and ultimately the rep themselves) to spend 5x as long to resolve. 

Quicker decisions without the right context can leave your company in a bigger predicament than they initially thought they’d be in. 

Our advice? Take time to get the right information and think through the current situation and impact thoughtfully before decisioning. This may feel like you’re being slowed down in the immediate, but you’d be saving your company the money and headache down the line.