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Sam Decker

Return on Churn

I’m often amazed at how much work is done that doesn’t really move ‘the ball forward.’

I call this ‘churn’. Churn feels like spinning wheels. In a large organization, it can feel like someone stepped on an ant hill. You’re either an ant, or the foot.

Churn can be created from a random idea, question, request. It can look like analysis that is not actionable, reporting that is not used, or general work redundancy from multiple groups acting on a hot topic.

Of course, when you spin your wheels in the car, the car eventually starts to move. Similarly, churn moves things, just slowly and inefficiently. Therefore, there should be a high ROI hurdle for churning.

So, the next time I sense churning is about to begin, I’m going to call that elephant in the room and ask, “What is the Return on this Churn.” Catchy, huh?

How to burn churn? Excellent communication and clarity of roles and responsibilities.

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