No organisation wants to be difficult to navigate, but they do accumulate layers over time.
Here, I use the term organisational sediment to describe this process.
What Is Organisational Sediment?
Organisational sediment refers to the accumulated layers of processes and structures that remain after the circumstances that created them have passed. These artefacts may include policies, procedures, reporting requirements and technologies.
Sediment is neither good nor bad. Just like geological layers, it marks the history and development of an organisation. Indeed, some layers may represent hard-won gains in safety and governance.
The problem is that organisations often continue adding layers without eroding or compacting what came before. When new processes are simply laid over top of old ones, they risk hardening past solutions into constraints.
Over time, the accumulation of sediment may slow organisational functioning and create inefficiencies that are difficult to account for.
Why Does Sediment Occur?
Let’s go over some key mechanisms.
1. Adding is easier than subtracting.
Adding a policy or reporting system can be pointed to as a concrete action in response to a changing context.
But removing an item or process can raise concerns that oversight is being weakened. It is also hard to point to the absence of something as a response, even if it improves efficiency.
2. No one is responsible for cumulative burden.
No one may be directly responsible for overseeing the cumulative effects, measuring them or assessing their cost to the organisation.
Staff may report on the burden of accumulated processes, but their revision may require sustained, cross-department coordination that goes beyond the scope of any one leader.
3. Organisational memory fades.
Organisational memory of formative events fades as people leave. With their departure, the rationale behind a decision may also be forgotten, while the resulting process lingers on.
When it becomes baked into the way people do business, it becomes harder to imagine alternatives.
Why Sediment Matters
Sediment can slow decisions because each process takes time to complete.
Although each individual process may take only a little time, sedimented processes may cumulatively take up a lot of time that would be better spent on core job performance.
Counterintuitively, accountability can be obscured when processes require too many layers of approval.
Additional approvals are often introduced to increase accountability. But when everyone is overtasked, no one person may be able to devote adequate time to oversight.
Sediment can also lead organisations to focus more attention on procedures than on outcomes.
For example, people may be asked to repeatedly file forms until the information is entered correctly. Accuracy and precision are, of course, important, but should also be balanced against the costs of delay and employee time.
Ironically, attempts to improve organisational performance often produce another layer of sediment.
The Value of Subtraction
Instead of asking “What process should we now introduce?” leaders might ask “If we were designing this organisation today, would we build this process?”
This allows leaders to consider subtracting processes as well as adding them. Subtraction may involve compacting prior processes into simplified routines to reduce effort and protect employee time.
Sometimes an organisation needs to excavate before it can build in a new strategic direction.