Watch for bottlenecks

Let people know when timeliness counts

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to watch for bottlenecks when you are planning
out anything major that involves multiple people. Make sure that

(00:27):
everyone knows when other people are going to be depending
on them to do something. This doesn't solve the problem
of hold ups entirely, but it does lessen it, and
that is a wonderful thing in its own right. I
am sure everyone listening to this has been part of

(00:50):
projects that got stalled or delayed because of something small.
Because someone hasn't done a five minute task, other people
can't start on their ten hour tasks, and so time
keeps passing and getting wasted. This can be incredibly frustrating

(01:12):
if you are a more junior person waiting on one
small thing from a senior person who can't seem to
make it a priority. It is also frustrating if you
are a highly organized person waiting for something from a
team member whose strengths seem to lie in other places.

(01:34):
I will go ahead here and state my belief that
the vast majority of people do not actively seek to
be bottlenecks. Maybe one person in a thousand gets some
thrill from it, but in most cases it happens because
people do not know that future tasks are dependent on

(01:54):
their task, or they really haven't thought it through. Latter
case stems more from understandable issues than malice. For instance,
someone might think it is perfectly fine to respond to
an email that came in around five pm the next morning,

(02:15):
and in many cases it absolutely is, but not if
a key team member waiting for a response is currently
at a conference in Australia, and this now means missing
the entire next business day over there. If you run
any sort of big project, you know that you need

(02:37):
to map out the steps, but as you do, pay
particular attention to where things get handed over or anything
where future steps are entirely dependent on one task being done.
Whenever you see those, note them. And then this is

(02:58):
key make sure the people who surround that potential bottleneck
know that it is there. This can be done nicely,
of course, John. We will need you to approve this
contract later this week, and we are hoping this can
be a quick turnaround by the end of the business day.

(03:18):
On the day that you get it, we will make
sure that you are included on any questions beforehand, so
when you get the final draft, this will hopefully be
a quick step or Ruth, we will need to meet
with you once the team has a potential presentation. We
are anticipating that will happen Thursday or Friday this week.

(03:41):
Can we block two spots in case they are delayed
or in case something comes up for you and we
will just hope the second spot isn't needed. You can
also make sure that when you or anyone else is
clearly handing over the baton, that the need for timeliness
and maybe even a deadline is mentioned. Stacy, thank you

(04:06):
for agreeing to look over this document. As you know,
Tom is in Europe right now, and so if you
can get it to him before ten am your time,
that means he'll be able to look at it before
the end of the day. For him. Advanced warning is
also good. We are really hoping for a two hour
turnaround once you have this document for approval. If we

(04:30):
don't get that, it could delay the whole project by
several days due to the upcoming long weekend. I can
give you twenty four hours notice of when it will
get to you, or whatever you can do along those
lines again, most people don't want to cause problems. When

(04:51):
senior people don't get to things that require their input,
it is often because there are many, many, many things
requiring their input. So if you are the senior person
and you work with a good assistant, you can have
the assistant be watching for bottlenecks. A head's up from

(05:12):
an assistant to look at something quickly can save you
the trouble of hunting for such things and also ensures
that things don't get delayed. Much in life winds up
happening later than planned. Some of this is inevitable, but
some really isn't. When we are on the lookout for bottlenecks,

(05:36):
we are more likely to keep there from being delays
for no good reason. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our times. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

(06:00):
You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
Before Breakfast pod that's b E the number four then
Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that

(06:20):
before breakfast is spelled out with all the letters thanks
so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch
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