The Rework Tax

After a quarterly miss vs plan, the board conversation collapses fast:

• What drove the miss?

• What’s changing now so we don’t repeat it?

What’s often underneath it: execution breaks in the transfer between owners — work changes hands and comes back different.

Most executive teams aren’t confused about strategy. The frustration is simpler — the organization looks busy, but progress keeps arriving late or diluted.

You can’t solve that with another alignment meeting. You solve it by finding the break point.

So I don’t debate it. I measure it.

I run a short execution diagnostic that shows where execution is breaking (by team and layer) while there’s still time to fix it within the quarter.

When it points to handoffs, the mechanism is straightforward: When work changes hands, the definition of “done” changes. One side thinks it’s “good enough to ship.” The next treats it as if it needs to be bulletproof.

That’s where second passes come from: reclarify, redecide, rework.

From the executive seat, it looks like this:

·       “Done” isn’t done — everything comes back for a second pass.

·       Decisions don’t hold — the first real tradeoff reopens them.

·       Escalations replace execution — because the handoff didn’t.

·       The org is in motion, not in progress — and the board only sees results.

What the diagnostic isolates in these cases is simple: handoffs change the work because “done” and tradeoffs aren’t explicit, so the work gets reinterpreted every time it changes hands.

What I’d do next (14–21 days): pick one critical handoff tied to revenue or delivery and harden it.

·       name the owner on each side

·       explicit output

·       explicit acceptance criteria

·       a short weekly checkpoint until stable

Then re-run the diagnostic in 14–21 days and verify whether execution tightened — with evidence.

Here's something to think about: Where does work get “finished” — and then quietly start over? Do you know why?