Coordination as respect

The best logistics operation I’ve seen had one quality: everyone knew what was going on.

Which dock. What time. Who was receiving. Nothing was advanced. It was basic information that someone had thought about in advance.

Coordination is often described as efficiency. It is that too. But first and foremost it’s respect. Respect for the fact that someone’s time has value. That waiting time isn’t free just because it falls on someone else.

Most operational problems I’ve seen aren’t caused by lack of resources. They’re caused by nobody telling the person doing the work what’s going on.

If you make decisions that affect other people’s workday: ask yourself if they know what’s going on. If the answer is no, you have a coordination problem. And it costs more than you think.