I had constructed a Silent Leak™ inside my own finance organization, and I did not see it until it was already there.
When we moved to remote work I solved for infrastructure, and every system reported healthy while the unplanned conversations the organization depended on quietly stopped. I have never again assumed that because the systems are working, the organization is.
What I solved for
Infrastructure. When we sent everyone home, I made sure the systems worked. Connectivity, equipment, escalation paths, access. Measured against what I was solving for, it went well.
What I missed
The building had been doing something for us that nobody had a line item for. The unplanned conversation. The question asked in a hallway. The thing you notice on someone’s face.
That did not survive the move, and it did not announce itself when it went. There was no incident, no metric, no complaint. A capability the organization depended on simply stopped, quietly, while every system I was watching reported healthy.
What made it worse
When we tried to replace it, I left it to individual judgment. Managers did not all prioritize check-ins the same way or schedule them the same way, which guaranteed the replacement would be uneven. Something that had happened by accident in a building had to be designed on purpose outside of one. Regular, structured, expected.
Why this is the case study I most want published
I had built a Silent Leak™ inside my own finance organization. Every function was working. Every system was green. The aggregate capability was degrading, in the seam between the boxes, which is the exact failure I spend my professional life describing in other people’s commercial organizations.
I did not see it until it was already there. That is the whole point. If it is invisible to someone who has made a career of looking for it, then the claim that it is invisible to a manufacturer’s cross-functional leadership is not a sales argument. It is a description.
I have never again assumed that because the systems are working, the organization is.
Former employers and products referenced are matters of professional history. The views expressed are my own and are not made on behalf of any current or former employer, and no commercial outcome for any named product is attributed to me personally. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
What a leak costs once it reaches the number is in You Can Be Exactly Right About the Wrong Number. The ten places a patient can leave are on the philosophy page, and terms used here are defined in the glossary. The patient-side view of the same ten exits is at Where did your treatment stop?