Process

The Real Issue: How Processes Have Evolved - Failure Mode #3: Control stacking in banking processes

Failure Mode #2: Excessive Handoffs When ownership is unclear, work starts changing hands and excessive handoffs become the next constraint. Excessive Handoffs Work doesn’t move forward—it moves around. From inbox to inbox. From queue to queue. From team to team. Each handoff looks reasonable in isolation. Together, they quietly become the process. Excessive handoffs usually accumulate for good reasons: Capacity was uneven Risk wanted visibility A workaround solved a short‑t

Failure Mode #1: Overlapping Ownership If work around the core feels heavier than it should, overlapping ownership is often where the problem begins. Overlapping Ownership Over time, many bank processes evolve to involve more and more groups - operations, risk, compliance, line of business, audit. Each group touches the work. Each has a valid reason for being there. And yet, no one truly owns the outcome. On the surface, overlapping ownership feels responsible. More visibilit

The question to ask is not “how do we make the core work harder”. The better question is “how do we design work that allows the core to do what it already does well”. In my last post, I shared an idea that resonates with many banks we work with: when things feel hard operationally, the core system is often the first place we look. But in most cases, the deeper issue isn’t the platform - it’s how work has evolved around it. That evolution didn’t happen recklessly. It happ

Community and regional banks often reach the same conclusion when operational friction shows up around the core. Something must be wrong with the system. In many cases that conclusion feels justified because the pain is real.