Explore ten recurring operational problems, what to check before repeating a fix, and how to choose the next action based on evidence.
Articles & analysis
Operational Payoff
Operations consulting for consequential decisions, stalled projects, recurring operational problems, and results that fall short.
Articles on losing money, business process improvement, workload, decisions, project delivery, strategy execution, necessary work and ownership, and AI.
For operations leaders, chiefs of staff, project managers, and others responsible for important projects and day-to-day operations—from customer onboarding and service delivery to finance and internal systems.
Emergent Skills works on two sides of an important commitment. Before the decision, the Decision Challenge examines whether the evidence supports the proposed commitment and whether the work needed to produce the expected result is feasible. After a project stalls or a result falls short, ES investigates what happened between the intended result and the work that was supposed to produce it.
Most shortfalls already have explanations: the process, the people, priorities, workload, training, the system, or something else. Any one could be right. We start with the result and the Initial Investigation Checks, then examine necessary work and ownership, where work gets stuck, whether conditions around execution contribute to errors or rework, and other competing explanations.
Before you fund the fix, find the right problem. The aim is to help leaders distinguish what the evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and what next step is justified.
Before the commitment or after the result falls short
If the decision has not been made, the Decision Challenge examines the evidence, alternatives, economics, required work, and material uncertainties before you commit. If the commitment has already been made and the expected result is falling short, the Stalled Priority Snapshot investigates what happened and what the evidence supports doing next. Download the white paper: Why Important Work Falls Short
Written with AI assistance.
Why do projects fall short? Review 10 examples, check the evidence behind missed results, and decide what to fix before committing more time or money.
Why do projects stall? Ten examples of stalled projects show what to check first, from approval delays to unassigned work, before you fund a fix.
AI can help examine why a business result is falling short. It can also produce an explanation nobody has checked. Test it before funding the fix.
How To Make Decisions Under Uncertainty: when a stalled project has several plausible causes, you can decide what the evidence justifies doing next.
You funded the fix, but the problem came back. Learn why fixes fail when the explanation was never tested and what to check before spending again.
Private equity value creation can stall when required work is missing from the plan. Check ownership, execution and the assumptions behind the return.
The productivity paradox: why finished projects miss the business result, and the four unassigned jobs operations leaders should check first.
Learn when project problems justify deeper investigation, how to assess costs and value at stake and when internal review or outside help makes sense.