Field notes / From the background

The small things that give it away.

Short observations from EMF Consulting on everyday operations: clearer handovers, decisions that lead to action and systems that support growth.

01 / Handover

The gap between “done” and received.

Why work gets stuck between one person finishing and the next person starting.

A task can be complete for one person and still be a problem for the next. The email was sent. The stock arrived. The instruction was given. Somewhere after that, the work stopped moving.

Following a handover reveals what a process diagram can miss: who notices the gap, who chases it, and whose memory is keeping the operation together.

A useful question: what does the next person need in order to begin?

02 / Decisions

The meeting is not the movement.

Why meetings don’t always lead to decisions—and what helps people act.

A busy calendar can disguise a decision that has not been made. More people have discussed it. More context has been circulated. The person waiting to act is still waiting.

Useful governance makes the next step clear: what was decided, who owns it, and when it needs to happen. The record supports the work. It is not the work itself.

A useful question: what can someone do differently after this meeting?

03 / Growth

The workaround that became the system.

How to stop a growing business depending on one person’s memory.

In a small team, remembering can look like a process. One person knows the exception, the supplier, the missing step. It works—until the business asks that knowledge to be everywhere at once.

Growth does not make every old habit wrong. It makes the cost of the fragile ones harder to ignore. The useful task is to keep the judgement and make the knowledge transferable.

A useful question: what stops working when your most experienced person is away?

From thinking to doingSee what changed.Selected work →