COO Report – April 2026: Why Work Is Moving, But Outcomes Aren’t 

There’s a pattern that shows up across teams more often than we like to admit. Work is moving. People are busy. Meetings are happening. Updates are being shared. But when you step back and look at outcomes, timelines shift, priorities drift, and delivery feels slower than it should. This is not a capacity issue. It’s an execution issue.

According to the Asana Work Index, nearly 58 percent of time is spent on coordination and communication, while McKinsey estimates that around 20 percent of time goes into internal alignment and approvals. That’s a significant portion of effort that doesn’t directly move work forward. And it shows.

Where Execution Actually Slows Down

Most delays don’t happen at the start of a project. They happen in the middle. The plan is clear. The team is aligned. Work begins with momentum. But as execution moves forward, decisions start to stretch. Dependencies build. More people get involved. Conversations expand.

Nothing breaks. But everything slows slightly. Those small delays compound. By the time it becomes visible, timelines have already shifted.

Activity Is Not the Same as Progress

One of the more difficult things to call out is this. High activity can mask low progress. Teams can be fully engaged and still not be moving at the pace required. There’s no lack of effort. If anything, there’s more effort than before.

But effort is being spread across coordination, updates, and alignment rather than focused execution. This is where the gap sits. Not between talent and output, but between activity and outcome.

The Decision Layer

If there’s one place where execution consistently slows, it’s decision-making. Teams can build, analyze, and move quickly. But when decisions require multiple touchpoints, alignment across stakeholders, or additional validation, momentum drops.

According to Bain & Company, organizations that are effective at decision-making are 2.5 times more likely to outperform their peers. That’s not because they have better teams. It’s because decisions don’t stall. In contrast, when decisions are revisited, expanded, or delayed, execution becomes uneven. Work continues, but direction doesn’t always keep up.

Ownership and Flow

Another pattern that shows up often is unclear ownership. When multiple people are involved, responsibility tends to spread. Input increases, but accountability becomes less defined. The result is that teams move work forward, but decisions wait. And once decisions start waiting, everything behind them does too.

This isn’t always obvious in the moment. It shows up over time, in slower cycles, repeated discussions, and work that takes longer than expected to close.

What This Means for Delivery

From an operational standpoint, the impact is straightforward. Projects take longer than planned. Hiring decisions extend. Internal initiatives lose momentum. Teams spend more time aligning than executing. None of these issues come from lack of capability. They come from how work flows through the system.

Execution is not just about what teams do. It’s about how decisions, ownership, and alignment support that work.

What Needs to Change

The fix here isn’t to reduce activity. It’s to reduce friction. That starts with clarity around decision ownership. Not every decision needs consensus. Some need a clear owner and a clear timeline.

It also requires separating alignment from execution. Alignment is important, but it shouldn’t continuously interrupt delivery. And finally, it comes down to being more deliberate about where time is spent. Not every update, meeting, or discussion adds value. The focus needs to shift back to outcomes.

My Thought

“Most organizations don’t have an effort problem. They have a flow problem. Work is happening. But it’s not always moving in a straight line. Closing that gap isn’t about asking teams to do more. It’s about making it easier for them to move.”