Library/Leak 14

Waiting on external dependencies

Work paused waiting on something outside the business's own control: a client's response, a vendor's delivery, a third-party approval.

VestSimplifyWaitingC · a quarter

How you know you have it

“What's sitting and waiting on someone outside your business right now? How long does that usually take?”

What kind of leak it is

A time leak — it costs hours

How to measure it

elapsed days blocked, separately from any labor hours spent chasing it

Annualized the same way everywhere: duration × frequency × people × 52.

Typical range — illustrative

the labor cost of chasing is usually small; the elapsed-time cost is the number worth naming

An order of magnitude to prime your eye, not a statistic and not a claim about anyone's result. The only number that matters is the one you measure.

The move — Simplify

Build in a default or fallback, or make someone own proactive follow-up on a schedule.

Where it lands in a Time P&L

Waiting

How long a fix takes

C · a quarter

What to do about it

Tools that fix this

And across everything

On paper

This category and the other nineteen on one page, to tick off against a normal week: The 20 Time Leaks.