What a business needed to become successful isn’t always what it needs next.
Much of how a business runs was built for the business it used to be, and kept long after anyone checked whether it still fits. Every business has a few arrangements everyone agrees are slightly mad and nobody has time to fix. They can be harmless. Occasionally one of them is holding up the roof.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Something customers find irritating has been on the list for years, but it’s “how the system works”, so the support team smooths it over, call after call. It comes up at Friday drinks more often than in meetings, and the customers aren’t the only ones getting tired of it.
A spreadsheet that started as a stopgap now holds something the business can’t do without, and only one or two people really understand it.
Everyone knows who to ask when something odd comes up. Fewer people have asked what happens when they’re on holiday.
A decision that should take a day takes a fortnight, because nobody is quite sure whose it is.
A good person leaves, and the exit conversation is perfectly polite. The real reason was a dozen small frustrations, none of which seemed worth raising on its own.
A new system or a larger programme has been suggested as the answer, and it didn’t feel like the right solution.
None of these arrives as a crisis. They tend to be absorbed quietly by whoever is closest to them, often the people the business can least afford to wear out.
What I do
I work on the operational side of a business: whether the people, processes and technology it relies on are still lined up with what it’s trying to do. The strategy is usually yours. My part is helping the business get into the shape it needs to deliver it.
That starts with a close look at how things run, including the quirks nobody quite thinks to question. Then I help change what needs changing, in proportion to the problem, rather than overhauling everything at once.
After that, how involved I stay is up to you.
Get in touch
If you’d like to talk, pick a time that suits you. Or if you’d rather write, I’m at sarah@sarah-kennard.com.