Famous last words. Actually, my eyes light up when I hear this phrase. It’s usually a signal that gaps in the process have increased risk, workarounds are now standard operating procedure, and smart people are spending their days compensating for systems that no longer fit the business.
That also means there’s an opportunity to reduce risk and make people’s jobs meaningfully easier.
You might be ready for an upgrade to your processes if:
You still use Microsoft Access. I’ve spoken with four different businesses in the last six months still running critical workflows on it. Access debuted in 1992 as a database and as of 2021, is no longer supported by Microsoft. This means security risk, knowledge risk (only one person knows how it works), and scalability risk all bundled together. I keep joking that I may start a business solely to help companies retire it, with dignity. Test drive Microsoft Power Platform instead.
You use email as a workflow. Email folders are not a source of truth. Just ask audit. Or legal. Or the person who went on vacation and took the entire process with them. Email-based workflows work right up until something goes wrong, and no one can reconstruct what happened when. Please stop searching inboxes and relying on memory. It is time for a centralized repository with permission-based user roles. You will get status, ownership, and history without the need to untangle a spiderweb.
Your platforms don’t talk to each other. Integration does not mean downloading data to Excel, reformatting it, and uploading it into another system while whispering a small prayer. One missing row becomes a missing column, which quietly becomes dirty data that doesn’t reconcile three months later. The cleanup alone can cost hundreds of hours. The downstream impact creates very expensive regulatory exposure and reputational damage.
Your most critical processes live in someone’s head. If you rely on a few “go-to” people who know how things really work, you’ve built a culture that does not promote creative, nor does it feel psychologically safe. These are the same people who can’t take uninterrupted vacations and are constantly fielding Slack messages that start with, “Quick question…” Institutional knowledge should be embedded in systems and workflows, not trapped inside your highest performers.
If any of these examples made you laugh nervously or think, “We should really fix that,” you’re probably right. And you don’t have to do it alone. Sometimes the fastest path forward is having someone who knows how to see the whole system and then calmly, methodically, get it done.
As a strategic execution advisor, I don’t just point out what’s broken or hand over a pretty process map. I help leaders design and implement practical, durable solutions.
