"The mistake that makes everything slower"

When cycle time is long and things take weeks or months to finish, the natural reaction is to start work early.

Managers want to get ahead.
Stakeholders push to begin their item now, because “everything takes so long.”

And here’s the trap:

Cycle time isn’t fixed. It expands as work piles up. More work in progress means more context switching, more coordination, and more delay.

The pressure is real. I’ve felt it too.

Stakeholders queue up, hoping to get something—anything—onto the roadmap.
The manager, wanting to say yes, may start concurrent streams of work to keep everyone happy.

But now the team isn’t a team anymore—it’s a collection of individuals, each working on different priorities.
Shared goals blur. Focus fragments. Progress slows even further.

A savvy manager doesn’t give in to the pressure to start more.
They push back.
They protect flow.
They remind the team and stakeholders:

Have you felt this pressure in your team? Hit reply, I’d love to hear how you handled it.

Until next time,
Dermot
​The Messy Middle