Are you Stuckifyed?
Have you ever found yourself sitting in a meeting where the conversation goes in circles, no decisions are made, only to have another meeting to repeat the same process?
If this sounds familiar, you might be experiencing what I call Stuckifyed - the inability to make meaningful progress on outcomes that matter.
Several years ago, I became obsessed with this question: Why do we struggle to make progress on the things we say matter? And that set me off on a 12-year research journey.
How it all started
The year was 2013. I was seven years into my corporate career, in the trenches of leading large-scale transformation. I sat in a meeting, watching smart, capable people talking in circles. It was a decision that needed to be made weeks ago. The delay was starting to cut into the timeline, impacting the budget. We all felt busy, sitting in meetings, reviewing report after report, asking for more and more data, hoping it would turn into a crystal ball. The reality was that we were busy but not making any progress. If this sounds familiar, you’ve come to the right place!
There’s gotta be a better way
I was frustrated…and dizzy from all the circling. The furisouness turned into curiousness, and that’s when I decided I was going to enroll in a PhD program. I wanted to figure out why smart, capable people were struggling to make meaningful progress on outcomes that mattered.
Twelve years later…
A Phd program trains you to be a researcher and shows you how to create new knowledge with an average completion time of 4 to 7 years. I finished my Phd in four years, but I wasn’t satisfied. I felt there was more to dig into, to really get to the root of why organizations struggle to make progress. So, I kept researching and testing findings in the real world and finally…I’m able to put a name to this state of stuckness. And, I finally have evidence-based tools to help us move beyond the stuckness. YAY!
Stuckifyed is…
When smart, clever people find themselves working harder and harder and getting nowhere. When change feels constant, but nothing ever really changes. When people are exhausted and feel they have nothing to show for their efforts. These are symptoms of Stuckifyed.
Stuckifyed is expensive
Those meetings where everyone talks in circles, the decisions that get delayed, the timelines that slip, on the surface and individually, might seem inconsequential. But collectively, they have a substantial negative impact on productivity and revenue.
30% of productivity is lost to ineffective problem-solving. This translates to…
$412,500 wasted annually for a team of 20
$1,031,250 wasted annually for a team of 50
$2,062,500 wasted annually for a team of 100
What’s stuckifyed costing you?
Why are we Stuckifyed?
We are in this state because the methods and processes we are using to solve problems today were designed for a predictable and linear world - a world that no longer exists. At the same time, our brains are not wired for the complexity and pace of the modern world, and no one has taught us how to work with our brain wiring.
Stuckifyed is in how we define problems, how we make decisions, how we measure success, how we organize work, and how we respond to uncertainty. Unstuckifyed is about naming the stuckness and offering ways to move forward. Ways that are evidence-based and tested through research, not guesswork.
What to expect from this newsletter
In this weekly(ish) newsletter, you’ll get
A short reflection or story about the patterns that keep us stuck
A fresh insight, reframe, or research-backed concept
Updates from behind the scenes as I write the Unstuckifyed book - yep, that’s on the way
Sometimes reflective. Sometimes ranty. Always real.
Thank you again for signing up. If something resonates or bugs you, hit reply or leave a comment. I read everything and always welcome feedback.
Here’s to getting Unstuckifyed!
Dani
Glad to be here!!