Workflow or Work Clog?
How a COO Designs a Flow That Actually Works
Let’s talk about workflow — not the kind that lives in a PowerPoint deck and dies in a dusty Drive folder, but the real deal. The flow that gets people moving, projects shipping, and a company scaling without breaking. The kind a good COO dreams about… and a great COO actually builds.
Because here’s the thing: a workflow is either oil in the engine or gum in the gears. Nope, I don’t know about cars but I married a gear head so I try with my analogies.
The COO's Dilemma: Are We Flowing or Flailing?
When a Chief Operating Officer steps into the chaos of daily operations, they’re stepping into a living organism — one that’s grown systems like vines: sideways, upward, and often wildly out of control. My job isn’t (usually) to cut everything down, but to prune, rewire, and redesign.
And that starts with one simple, brutal question:
"Where is the work getting stuck?"
Meetings that should be emails. Tools that don’t talk to each other. So many tools you don’t even know where to look. Teams playing Slack tag. Approvals bottlenecked by one person who’s “OOO till next week.” Sound familiar?
That’s not workflow. That’s a work clog.
Mapping the Maze: Before You Build, You Watch
The smartest COOs don’t bulldoze. They observe. They listen. They ask frontline teams, "Walk me through your day."
Why? Because the blueprint for a better workflow is already there — buried in people's routines, frustrations, and hacks.
I look for:
Repeatable steps (hello, automation)
Approval chains (and their unnecessary cousins)
Dead air between handoffs
Shadow processes or non tracked activities(“Oh, we just do that in a shared doc”)
Tech overload (we put that in “insert task manager or whiteboard” but then copy it to Slack, CRM, and the next cool tech)
The Fix: Building a Flow That Moves With (Not Against) People
Once the clogs are spotted, it's time to rebuild — not just with tools, but with trust.
A COO designs new workflows with three goals in mind:
Clarity – Everyone knows who does what, when, and how.
Speed – Handoffs are seamless. Decisions don’t die in inboxes.
Adaptability – The system bends when the company grows. It doesn't break.
This could mean fewer steps, tighter feedback loops, automation that actually saves time, or ditching a legacy platform that no one really uses (but everyone pretends to).
Workflow ≠ One-Size-Fits-All
Every company has its own DNA. A COO doesn’t copy-paste from a LinkedIn article. They design workflows that match this team, this product, this stage of growth.
Because when workflow works, people stop managing chaos — and start managing impact.
So ask yourself: Do we have a workflow? Or are you clogging our way through the week?
Comment your thoughts in LinkedIn!
