21 January 2026
Handoffs that nobody owns
A handoff without an owner is still a process step. It just does not appear on the RACI, which is why the RACI feels finished and the yard still waits. We have heard this delay called communication, culture, and “the usual Friday scramble”. None of those names tell you how long the job sat.
The Handoff Reduction Clinic is three days because you do not need eight weeks to count owner-changes. You need enough time to stop arguing about tone and start arguing about the queue. Once the queue has a name, standup can point at it. Before that, people apologise for work that is not theirs.
Ownership does not have to mean a new manager. Sometimes it means a timestamp both sides already generate. Sometimes it means one extra signature on afternoon shift, which is unglamorous and therefore easy to mock in a steering committee.
If your improvement list has twelve handoff initiatives, you do not have a list. You have a refusal to choose. Pick one trail. Name the waits. Leave the rest for a later season.