The small, tinny voice of the podcasting guru explained EQ settings, and I felt a dull ache behind my eyes, number 22 on a scale of 1 to 22. My official title was ‘Marketing Manager,’ but today, just like the 22 days before this, I was also the audio engineer. And the copywriter. And the graphic designer. And, if the Wi-Fi so much as flickered for 2 seconds, the resident IT support. The glow from the screen reflected my own weary face, a stark reminder that ‘lean’ wasn’t a philosophy we subscribed to; it was a state we were forced into, often without a single logical reason for its existence.
We talk about ‘lean’ as if it’s some sacred scroll handed down by efficiency prophets, a path to agility and reduced overhead. And for a while, I bought into it, hook, line, and sinker. I once presented a slide deck – PowerPoint 2002, if you must know – extolling the virtues of minimal waste, streamlined processes, and maximizing human capital. I remember the nods, the quiet agreement, the collective sigh of relief from the finance department when I proposed we could probably do more with less. What I failed to see then, what I frankly refused to acknowledge, was that ‘less’ wasn’t a sustainable strategy when ‘more’ kept piling up at the door, 22 new tasks every week.
Weekly Load
Capacity
There’s a subtle violence in
