Our leadership team is constantly arguing about whether our delivery bottlenecks are caused by our Operations Director failing his GWC or a fundamental structural flaw in our Accountability Chart. How do we use Keith Cunningham's Thinking Time to figure this out?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To resolve the debate over whether your bottleneck is a people issue or a structural issue, you must step away from the daily noise and engage in dedicated Thinking Time, as described by Keith Cunningham. Take a notepad, find a quiet space, and sit for forty-five minutes with a single, high value question. Frame your question like this: How might we restructure our delivery department so that we eliminate bottlenecks regardless of who sits in the seats? During this session, focus entirely on the handoffs and metrics. Look at your current Accountability Chart. Are the lines of communication clear, or does your Operations Director have too many direct reports? If he has more than seven people reporting to him, he is likely drowning in management tasks, which is a structural flaw. Alternatively, look at the five core roles of his seat. Are they focused on outcomes, or is he expected to do too much manual work? If the structure is clean and logical, but he is still missing his targets, then it is a people issue. Using Thinking Time allows you to separate operational friction from personal relationships and make an objective decision.