MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Breaking Logjams in Knowledge Work

If you work in an organization, you know what it’s like to have too much to do and not enough resources to do it. Digital tools for communication and collaboration are meant to make it all more manageable, but access to technology often can’t fix the root causes: poor work design and entrenched organizational behaviors. The costs of overload are well-documented: It makes people less creative, less productive, more prone to illness, less likely to hit deadlines and goals, and more likely to leave their organizations to work elsewhere. And it’s been implicated in many major accidents and disasters, from BP’s Texas City Refinery explosion to the more recent U.S. Navy ship collisions. But, despite the evidence, many leaders continue to believe that their organizations thrive when overloaded, often both creating pressure and rewarding those who deliver under duress. It’s a popular but pathological approach to management. U.S. manufacturers suffered mightily under this approach for decades, until many found a better way.