1 minute read
Imagine a manufacturing plant where someone decides to measure how fast one worker moves a part from their station to the next.
They speed up. They move parts as fast as possible. But downstream, the parts pile up because the system isn’t ready for them. The bottleneck isn’t fixed. Nothing actually gets delivered faster.
This is exactly what happens when you measure individual cycle time in knowledge work. Someone finishing tasks quickly doesn’t mean anything if those tasks sit in queues, waiting on reviews, approvals, or handoffs.
Speed comes from fixing the system, not from pushing people to move faster.
Who’s still measuring individual cycle time in 2025?
Subscribe to Martin's signals
Writing since 2001
Signals, usually weekly. One click to leave.
Was this useful?
Enjoyed this? One click, no account.
Smart Classifications
Each classification [Concepts, Categories, & Tags] was assigned using AI-powered semantic analysis and scored across relevance, depth, and alignment. Final decisions? Still human. Always traceable. Hover to see how it applies.
Also published on LinkedIn.