What I Learned Standing Beside a Shipping Dock

Some of the best diagnostic work I've ever done wasn't in a boardroom. It was standing next to a shipping dock at 7am, watching how orders actually moved from “quoted” to “out the door.”

You learn things there you'll never learn in a spreadsheet. Like the fact that three different departments were each keeping their own version of “the truth” about order status — and none of them matched.

That's Leak #2, Fragmented Tech Stack, showing up in the physical world. Every tool was a fine decision on its own. Together, nobody fully trusted any of them.

Data doesn't lie, but it also doesn't tell you everything. Sometimes you've got to go stand where the work actually happens.

When's the last time you watched — really watched — one of your core processes happen from start to finish, instead of just reading the report about it?