Michael S. Cohen

In a previous role, I noticed the team was reinventing the wheel every single day.

It wasn’t a lack of effort. Everyone was moving fast, juggling tasks, doing their best.

But without clear processes or documented knowledge, the little things kept slipping:

▪️ Missed steps

▪️ Unclear handoffs

▪️ Forgotten follow-ups

It adds up. Fast.

So I started writing things down. Not manuals, just simple checklists:

▪️ Who owns the task

▪️ What “done” looks like

▪️ A few bullet points for how to do it right

That alone made a huge difference.

People stopped guessing. Handoffs got smoother. And we stopped feeling like we were starting from scratch every time.

🔷 You don’t need more people to fix chaos. You need clarity. 🔷

𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗲.

I've been reading 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘈𝘚𝘐𝘊𝘚 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭 by Business Improvement Group LLC founders Charlie Protzman and Daniel Protzman, and the common thread throughout the book is about finding ways to maintain process flow.

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit to the factory at SubCom and was blown away. What impressed me wasn’t just the scale of the operation, it was the intentional design behind how work moved.

Every station had:

▪️ Clear visual cues

▪️ Defined ownership

▪️ Just enough structure to keep things moving without adding friction

It reflected one of Protzmans' key ideas: lean isn’t about cutting corners; it’s about removing the friction that slows value down.

I didn’t see people waiting around for decisions. I saw flow.

And not because the work was easy, but because the process was visible, repeatable, and owned.

🔷 When lean is done right, it doesn’t feel flashy. It feels calm. 🔷

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: “𝐖𝐡𝐲?”⁣

⁣

I was supporting sales ops when we ran into a persistent headache:⁣

𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 3 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴.⁣

⁣

It didn’t make sense. The product was ready. The customer was waiting. But the process? Confusing, inconsistent, and buried under layers of habit.⁣

⁣

So I started asking “why?” A lot.⁣

⁣▪️ Why does this form get routed through three people?⁣

▪️ Why do we wait for final approval before requesting the export paperwork?⁣

▪️ Why does this step even exist?⁣

⁣

It wasn’t about blame; it was about understanding. And once we had that clarity, the fix was surprisingly simple.⁣

⁣

We reworked the flow, documented the requirements, automated part of the handoff… and 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 15 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴.⁣

⁣

No fire drills. No guessing. Just flow.⁣

⁣

𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧:⁣

🔷 Asking “why” doesn’t slow you down. It shows you where the friction lives and how to get rid of it. 🔷

🗺️ “𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙄 𝘼𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙈𝙖𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙭𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙄𝙩”

At DwellAssured, we were trying to scale our service provider network and honestly, things were getting a little chaotic.

Everyone was doing their best, but the process of bringing on new providers felt all over the place. If you asked three different people how it worked, you'd get three different answers and none of them were fully right.

So before making any changes, I just sat down and mapped out what was actually happening. Step by step. No assumptions.

And immediately, the issues started to show up:

▪️ We had the same info being reviewed multiple times by different people

▪️ Providers were getting pinged by two or three team members without realizing it

▪️ And there wasn’t one clear owner of the strategy for which markets we were trying to expand into

🔷𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗶𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅. 🔷

We clarified roles, cleaned up the handoffs, and I built a quick dashboard to track coverage and progress. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked — onboarding sped up, things stopped falling through the cracks, and everyone felt less scattered.

Funny how often the real win is just getting everyone on the same page.

𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚'𝙨 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧... 𝙣𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚! -𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗲, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀

The same is true in any project: If everything is a 5, then nothing is a 5.

One of the fastest ways to burn out a team and stall progress is by treating every problem like it is top priority.

🎯 It creates noise.

🎯 It hides real issues.

🎯 It leaves people constantly reacting instead of solving.

The fix isn’t complicated. It just takes discipline:

▪️Rank by impact (Does it break something important?)

▪️Rank by cost (What does it cost in time and money?)

▪️Rank by frequency (How often does it happen?)

🕔𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁.🕔

Most teams don’t have a shortage of effort. They have a shortage of clarity.

If you want to move faster, stop treating everything like it’s urgent.

Start treating focus like a resource.