The Fragmentation Problem Most Companies Can’t See

Fragmentation is one of the more common ways organizations lose execution capacity, and one of the least visible. Here’s how to identify it and what to do about it.

When organizations grow in complexity, a familiar pattern often emerges, even in busy, high-performing teams: fragmentation.

It typically announces itself as busyness. Reports of full calendars, back-to-back meetings, and stretched teams create the impression of an organization running at capacity. But busy-ness is often a symptom of the real problem, not evidence of productive output. 

Think of the senior leader who holds formal responsibility for five initiatives but is actively advancing none of them. The product team has half a dozen people providing input on every decision, but no single owner. The critical project that drags on because everyone assigned to it is simultaneously committed elsewhere.