A gnarly operational or business process is one that is complex, messy, and frustrating to navigate—like trying to untangle a pair of wired earbuds after they’ve been in your pocket for a week.
Here are some general characteristics that make a process particularly gnarly:
1. Unnecessary Complexity
- Too many steps, approvals, or decision points.
- Over-engineered solutions to simple problems.
- Legacy systems duct-taped together with workarounds.
2. Lack of Clarity & Documentation
- No one really understands how it works end-to-end.
- Tribal knowledge dominates, making onboarding a nightmare.
- Poor or outdated documentation (if it even exists).
3. Cross-Departmental Nightmares
- Requires input from multiple teams, all with different priorities.
- Hand-offs create bottlenecks, miscommunication, and delays.
- No clear ownership, so problems get passed around like a hot potato.
4. Too Many Manual Steps
- Heavy reliance on spreadsheets, emails, and copy-pasting data.
- Employees have to manually reconcile data from different sources.
- No automation, or automation that was half-built and then abandoned.
5. Constantly Changing Requirements
- Compliance, regulations, or leadership whims force frequent pivots.
- No standardised process—just a bunch of one-off solutions patched together.
- Employees are in a constant state of “Oh, they changed it again?”
6. High Risk of Errors
- Small mistakes cascade into huge problems down the line.
- No feedback loops to catch issues early.
- Fixing one problem just creates three more.
7. Endless Approval Chains
- Too many people need to sign off on things.
- Slow decision-making due to excessive gatekeeping.
- Processes that make you think, "Why does my boss's boss need to approve this?"
8. Inflexible Systems & Policies
- Old technology that doesn’t integrate well with newer tools.
- Rigid policies that don’t adapt to real-world needs.
- “We’ve always done it this way” syndrome.
9. Poor Visibility & Accountability
- No one knows where something is stuck or who’s responsible.
- Metrics, if they exist, are confusing or meaningless.
- Employees only find out there’s a problem when a customer complains.
10. A High Frustration Quotient
- Employees hate dealing with it.
- Customers get stuck in loops of inefficiency.
- Workarounds become the norm instead of the exception.
In short, a gnarly process drains time, energy, and morale—often feeling like it's held together by sheer willpower, sticky notes, and a handful of people who "just know how it works."
What kind of gnarly process are you dealing with?