The ultimate guide to resolving bottlenecks

A bottleneck is any situation where an individual person or a group of staff can’t move their work forward. A particular point in the process is obstructed, which causes the project to slow down or stop. For example, a member of a communications team can’t finish a newsletter on time because they spend a lot of time in meetings.

 

It can happen regularly, for example, because of poor planning or limited resources, or as a one-off, such as someone being unwell and off work.

 

A bottleneck is frustrating for everyone involved, especially if it happens a lot. They can delay projects and hinder outcomes, which then affects an organisation’s performance.

 

 

How bottlenecks form

 

Examples of bottlenecks include:

• Slow approval process for signing off a project
• Limited budget
• Lack of feedback from colleagues
• Limited resources and capacity
• Changes in staff
• Unexpected staff absence
• Technical issues, such as problems with computers and IT
• A communication breakdown 

A single person or a group of people are often the cause of bottlenecks. For example, poor communication in teams or between teams, which reduces productivity.

 

People are often unaware they are the causes of bottlenecks. For example, senior leaders can create bottlenecks if they don’t make decisions or delegate work to colleagues. This can delay projects.

 

Here are some tips for managing bottlenecks and stopping them from happening in the first place.

 

 

Identify the causes of bottlenecks

 

The first thing to do is to identify where bottlenecks are happening in your workplace. You can do this by mapping out the different steps involved in each process in your charity. The next step is to measure the performance of each step and compare it to the output you are expecting.

 

You should also ask for feedback from colleagues and other key audiences involved in the process. They can share their observations and help you to identify where bottlenecks are happening.

 

You could use a tool, like a flowchart, to visualise the process and help identify bottlenecks.

 

 

Keep an eye on projects

 

Track all the projects that staff are working on so you can see how different processes function. This will help you to see when and where problems are occurring.

 

By breaking down each process, you can look out for issues that might cause bottlenecks. If you identify a bottleneck, you can then come up with a solution to stop it from happening in the future.

 

Make sure you don’t have too many projects in work in progress. This will make things more manageable and allow you to have good oversight of what is going on in the organisation.

 

 

Be aware of people’s capacity to resolve bottlenecks

 

When planning projects, managers need to think about staff workload. If people are overworked, they won’t be as effective or efficient, which will slow down projects.

 

It’s important to look at upcoming deadlines, how much capacity there is in the team and external commitments. For example, whether anyone is a carer for older parents or young children.

 

Budgets are stretched in the charity sector, but you may need to consider recruiting more staff. To get rid of bottlenecks completely, the best thing is to prevent them from happening in the first place. So, prioritise recruiting staff into positions that can help to resolve bottlenecks and stop them from happening again.

 

 

Make your communication effective

 

Poor communication can cause bottlenecks in the workplace. If feedback or instructions about a project are not given to staff on time, it can lead to delays. This can happen if an organisation doesn’t have the communication channels in place to share the information.

 

By improving communications in your charity, you’ll improve the way that teams work together. Leaders should develop and implement a communications strategy to make their communications more effective.

 

It’s worth using a project management tool so team members can share live updates about a project. This will reduce miscommunication. Also, setting up ways for staff to give feedback, such as weekly meetings, can encourage openness and continuous improvement in an organisation.

 

 

Talk to staff about changes that could cause bottlenecks

 

Once you’ve identified bottlenecks and you make changes to processes that have been in place for a long time, you need to get your team onboard. To do this, you need to communicate with them about the new processes. Once you’ve discussed the changes with staff, you should share the same message again in different ways to make sure people hear and understand it.

 

When you communicate the changes, you should explain what the changes are, why they are taking place and how they will improve processes.

 

You can find more advice on communicating change to staff by reading “Getting your team to embrace change”.