Most Team Struggles Aren't Motivation Issues—They're Workflow Issues

Описание: Tech Word of the Week Series. Let's explore Workflow. Ever wonder why your team struggles even when everyone's working hard? It's often a workflow issue, not a motivation one! 🚀 This week, we explore how understanding and improving your workflow can significantly boost workplace productivity and team efficiency. By focusing on continuous improvement process, you can increase efficiency and reduce friction, making work flow smoothly. ✨

00:12 😔 Tolu Amadi explains that work often feels heavy because teams struggle with unclear workflows, leading to decisions looping and handoffs blurring, which manifests as friction and effort.
00:26 💡 Tolu highlights that what appears to be a motivation issue is usually a workflow issue, defining a workflow as how work actually moves, not how it's supposed to move.
00:46 🔄 When workflows are unclear, people compensate by manually following up, constantly reminding each other, and carrying context in their heads, leading to work getting done but at a much higher energy cost.
01:09 📝 A workflow is precisely defined as the sequence of steps, decisions, and handoffs required to move work from start to completion, emphasizing it's not a tool or software but an agreed path.
01:32 🛑 Poorly defined workflows cause work to get stuck waiting for clarity or require leaders to step in, meaning flow depends on people compensating for systemic issues, which is termed structural friction.
02:00 🛡️ Workflow design is presented as a leadership responsibility, not an operational task, because clear workflows protect energy, trust, and momentum.
02:16 ❓ Tolu suggests better questions for leaders to ask are: where does work pause unnecessarily, where are decisions unclear, and where are people stepping in just to keep things moving?
02:47 🚀 Automation is only effective when workflows are clear; without clarity, speed merely amplifies confusion.
02:58 🧐 Tolu Amadi advises observing how work actually moves, noticing where it slows, loops, and where people quietly compensate, as this awareness is the starting point for improvement.