Everyday Run State: Pro Edition

I’ve been attending conferences and client events this week (more to come on that later!) and the value has been absolutely incredible. These are smaller format, more interactive panel discussions and small group events which have allowed for nuanced discussion and real takeaways.

However, I have (as I’m sure all of you have too,) been to the conferences with BIG IDEAS and flashy, high-level, rah-rah-rah “let’s change everything and chase the next shiny new initiative!”

Yikes.

It’s not that the ideas are bad. It’s that when they hit the real world, especially through the lens of our internal systems, they contradict something else already in motion. This almost always causes frustration, uncertainty, and wastes a significant amount of time and energy.

🧩 The Clash of Strategy vs. Systems

Here’s where things usually go sideways:

1. Faster Ticket Resolution vs. Deeper Client Interaction

Leadership Goal 1: “We need faster resolution times!”
Leadership Goal 2: “We want our team to build stronger relationships!”

In a vacuum, both are great. But in practice? Your team’s being asked to spend more time on each ticket… while also closing them faster. Systems surface this contradiction quickly: SLAs breach while CSAT tanks. Nobody wins.

2. Push for Strategic Projects, Forgetting Capacity

Leadership: “Let’s drive more value through high-impact projects!”
Reality: “Oh, but we didn’t free up anyone to actually do them.”

Most systems will show this mismatch immediately - overloaded boards, constant schedule conflicts, zero room for creative work. The data’s there, we just need to trust it and plan accordingly.

3. Sales Overdrive Meets Service Guardrails

Sales is told: “Let’s go bold and sell more, faster!”
Service is told: “Standardize everything, reduce exceptions.”

Sound familiar? Systems start flagging misalignment as delivery teams scramble to deliver on promises they weren’t looped into. Templates, scopes, and SLAs all get strained, and it shows.

💡 Lean Startup Wisdom

Eric Ries, in The Lean Startup, stresses validated learning — test small, learn fast, adapt. That means before rolling out major changes, pilot them. Let systems and data show you what’s really happening, and then scale.

✅ Slow Down to Speed Up

Before launching any initiative:

• Ask: “How does this conflict with what we’re already asking teams to do?” Ask the people who are actually going to be impacted by the change how they feel, what their ideas are, and if they would suggest something different.

• Look: At your systems. Boards, dashboards, reports, they often reveal what’s not working before you feel it. Don’t have any of those things? Get a pen and paper and map out the current steps in your process. Then, add the one step before and after the process to get a better sense of the real impact.

• Test: Pilot new ideas with a single team or workflow. Watch the impact. Then decide if you’re going to roll it out at a larger scale.

Big ideas are exciting. But execution lives in the day-to-day, where systems quietly reflect how well your strategies align with your overall vision, and with each other.

Have a horror story of a “Big Idea” wrecking your day (week… month?)
Let me know - I read all the email responses!

See you next week,

Monica