5 Bummers to Avoid

Not all bummers are avoidable - like when a side of your PB&J hurtles jam-side toward the floor and you try to catch it but smack your head on the open kitchen drawer just as the dog arrives. But when it comes to the procedures and workflows that govern daily life in an organization, it pays to avoid certain bummers, such as the five listed below. Beginning with the least bummer to the biggest bummer of all, they are:

5.  Unpreparedness for an AI investment. 

It’s the least-likely of the bummers but BUMMER ! if there’s a revolutionary development of affordable, small business, industry-specific, data-protected AI tools that become available overnight, and you’re not ready for it, but your competition is.  

Avoidance tactic: Gain valuable insight into strategic deployments of an AI tool by documenting workflows and standardizing procedures now.

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4. Data blindness. 

Critical data points move through internal operations like water droplets flowing into a river’s tributaries.  All those little droplets eventually end up somewhere, usually on one or more management reports.  And then one day, a team changes how data flows through their particular workflow, which inadvertently prevents certain data points from hitting a financial report and BUMMER! the issue is discovered after the quarterly financials have been filed. 

Avoidance tactic: Reduce the risk of rework and unintentional loss by documenting data movement throughout workflows and standardized procedures.

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3.   Unfavorable audit results. 

Ever work in an organization where a team lead with system administrator privileges transfers to another department and the privileges should be – but aren’t – changed?  After leaving the department, everybody goes to the former team lead to fix the thing that breaks every Tuesday until BUMMER! external auditors question why the former team lead’s user ID is all over the system change log. 

Avoidance tactic: Ensure the right fingers do the walking through workplace systems by documenting employee transfer and exit workflows and procedures.

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2. Multiple points of failure.

You’re a supplier of cabinetry and finally land a star customer who expects to spend $3 million annually through your supplier service. The first order — a simple one — is processed without issues, and the star customer meets the deadline for the cabinet installation. The second order — a standard cabinet with custom hardware — arrives from the builder with Satin Nickel hardware instead of Brushed Nickel. The receiving department catches the mistake, but there’s not enough time to order the correct hardware. Miracle of miracles, a stash of Brushed Nickel hardware is located in the warehouse, and the star customer meets the deadline for the cabinet installation. The third order — a custom size with custom color and custom hardware — arrives with the correct color and hardware but BUMMER! the dimensions are wrong because someone on your sales team entered the wrong dimensions in the order system. The star customer is forced to push the installation out at least four weeks to accommodate the lead time required to receive the correct custom cabinets from the builder. Custom sizes cannot be returned, so your company eats the cost, your star customer is furious, and it’s only the third order.

Avoidance tactic: Reduce risks associated with failure points by documenting failure points in procedures and workflows, identifying risk responses, and inserting routine quality checks in workflows.

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1. Morale crisis. 

Let’s say an employee hired five weeks ago decides to quit. It’s not likely the employee would have built — in five weeks’ time — the relationship network, skills, knowledge, and daily work accomplishments that could create an employee morale crisis with an unplanned exit. But let’s say the employee is a long-term warehouse manager — with a host of undocumented relationship networks, skills, knowledge, and deadline-driven daily work tasks — and about to retire. An insightful co-worker attempts to record the workflow and procedures in the two weeks before the retirement date, but the warehouse manager resists because of a grudge against a senior leader. The day after retirement, three delivery trucks arrive, each with a pallet-filled trailer and tight turnarounds. It’s all hands on deck…nobody knows where to start…and, BUMMER! everyone knows the warehouse manager exited without documenting workflows and procedures because the senior leader downplayed the importance of the role during manager meetings.

Avoidance tactic: Support employee morale by gaining insight into the strategic importance of every role through documented workflows and standardized procedures.

  Operational excellence begins with clarity on workflows and procedures.

This blog was written and edited by a human!

© 2025 Lori K. Barbeau