Transformation Law 40: Temporary Workarounds

A temporary workaround becomes a permanent operational dependency when the organisation can no longer sustain normal service without it.

Workarounds often begin as sensible responses to genuine operational constraints.

A system cannot exchange essential information. An approval route takes too long. A process does not reflect how the service actually operates.

Experienced people find another way to get the work done.

And the service continues.

The difficulty emerges when those arrangements become indispensable without being formally recognised.

When exceptions become essential

What began as an exception gradually becomes part of the organisation's operational infrastructure.

Yet the operating model, governance and resource assumptions may still describe a world in which those dependencies do not exist.

This creates a particular form of exposure.

Leadership believes it understands how the service operates, while its continuity depends on arrangements that have never been properly acknowledged, owned or assured.

• Manual reconciliations compensate for unresolved integration gaps.
• Informal relationships become the only reliable route through organisational handoffs.
• Spreadsheets evolve into essential operational controls outside established assurance arrangements.
• Individuals retain responsibilities and knowledge that disappear from formal organisational records.

The Transformation Law

When a workaround becomes essential to normal operations, it is no longer an exception. It must be recognised and governed as part of the operating model.

The leadership obligation is not to remove every workaround.

It is to establish which arrangements have become operationally essential, why they remain necessary, and whether they should be formalised, replaced or eliminated without compromising service continuity.

An operating model must account for how the organisation actually functions, not merely how it was designed to function.

Are temporary workarounds concealing critical operational dependencies?

Contact Tawose Group today to explore how our Independent Diagnosis & Operating-Model Design services can help uncover hidden dependencies, address the constraints behind them, and enable more resilient, efficient and sustainable service delivery.