Patience vs Process Diagnostic
When something's stalling, know whether it needs more patience or a process intervention
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 88%
A judgment framework for leaders facing a stalling project or launch. Sometimes the right move is patience — letting things unfold — and sometimes an apparent need for patience is actually a hidden process problem the leader is avoiding. The diagnostic: if you search your mind and genuinely have no plan for how it comes together, haven't talked to the people involved, and sense an 'uncomfortable silence,' that's a signal to dive deeper rather than wait.
Origin
Drawn from Alisa Cohn's coaching of a CEO whose launch kept slipping.
Core principles
- 01Both patience and process intervention are sometimes correct — the skill is knowing which
- 02'I need to have patience' can be a way of avoiding a glaring process problem others already see
- 03Keep your finger on the pulse: talk to people and look at data, don't just hope
- 04The problem may be small — one thing to unstick — not always a massive process failure
- 05Hope-it-works-out is a symptom; a clear path in your mind is the healthy state
How to run it
- 1
Notice the stall and your instinct to wait
When a project or launch keeps slipping and your instinct is 'I just need to have patience,' treat that instinct as something to test, not obey.
- 2
Run the three-part self-check
Ask: Do I actually have a plan in my mind for how this comes together? Have I touched base with the people involved? Do I sense an uncomfortable silence around it? 'No plan / no contact / uncomfortable silence' means dive deeper.
Pro tip An 'uncomfortable silence' about a project is a reliable symptom that something is being hidden or avoided.
- 3
Dive in — talk to people and look at data
Get in touch with what's really going on: talk to the folks on the ground and examine the data before concluding it's a patience situation.
Pro tip The issue might be one small thing to unstick, not a massive process problem — but you won't know without looking.
- 4
Surface and unstick the real problem
If there's a genuine process problem, surface it and, as the leader, find a way to unstick it rather than waiting for it to resolve itself.
Watch out Only hoping it works out — versus seeing an actual path to it working out — is the tell that it's probably a process problem you're ignoring.
In the wild
A CEO's launch kept slipping; his stance was 'have patience.' But Cohn, having talked to people around him, saw a massive process problem: an inexperienced PM was hiding it because he lacked the skills and was fighting with engineering.
→ Cohn enlightened the CEO on the issues he needed to get involved in and fix, reframing a 'patience' situation as a process problem requiring leadership intervention.
Common mistakes
Defaulting to 'have patience' without investigating
Repeating 'I need to have patience' while never checking in with people or looking at the data lets a hidden process problem — like an inexperienced report concealing a failure — fester until the launch fails.
Mistaking hope for a plan
If you're merely hoping the thing works out rather than seeing a concrete path, you've likely got a process problem you're avoiding, not a situation that genuinely needs more time.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and senior leaders overseeing a stalling launch or project who default to waiting it out
Not ideal for
Situations that genuinely require time to mature where premature intervention would just add churn
From the transcript
“sometimes you need to have patience and sometimes you need to look at the process”
“you don't really know how this thing is going to come together there's no like plan in your mind”
“you kind of hear this uncomfortable Silence about it”
“if you're just expect if there just hope this will worked out versus like I see a path to this working out”
From the episode
Scripts for difficult conversations: Giving hard feedback, navigating defensiveness, the three questions you should end every meeting with, more
Alisa Cohn (executive coach)