Most people think work falls through the cracks because people are busy, distracted, or unreliable.

More tools. More check-ins. More chasing.

This episode doesn’t blame people.

It points to something simpler.

The handoff.

When work moves from one task to the next.

From one person to another.

From “done” to “ready for the next step”.

That moment is where most businesses slow down.

Hi, I'm Mike Fox, host of this podcast, "Lone Wolf Unleashed."

In this episode, I break down why communication is not a separate task, and why if you’re not communicating, you’re not actually performing the work.

I explain how processes really work in the real world, why handoffs matter more than individual tasks, and how unclear expectations quietly destroy speed, trust, and cash flow, even in small, well-run businesses.

Using everyday examples and client scenarios, I show how missed handoffs force unnecessary follow-ups, extend cycle times, and keep founders stuck managing instead of moving forward.

This isn’t about more meetings.

And it’s not about micromanagement.

It’s about designing your processes so the right thing is with the right person at the right time, without chasing.

We cover:

Why communication is part of performance, not an extra responsibility

What a handoff actually is and why it’s the weakest point in most processes

How poor handoffs increase cycle time and hurt cash flow

Why founders struggle when hiring their first team member

How to set clear communication expectations inside your processes

What to document alongside tasks so work keeps moving without follow-up

The payoff is simple.

Less chasing.

Less managing.

Less work falling through the cracks.

You spend less time checking in and more time executing.

That’s how you free yourself up without growing a business you don’t want to manage.

And that’s how Lone Wolf Unleashed helps you build systems that give you back time, clarity, and control.

Chapters / Timestamps

00:00 Why work really falls through the cracks

00:48 A simple example of how processes break

02:23 Why communication equals performance

03:45 Cycle time, speed, and cash flow

04:30 A real example of a missed handoff

06:24 Why the handoff matters more than the task

06:50 Hiring, trust, and communication expectations

07:50 Reducing management time without micromanaging

08:48 Designing processes that actually flow

Links:

🔗 Lone Wolf Unleashed site – https://lonewolfunleashed.com

Mentioned in this episode:

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Today we are exploring the handoff problem and why

work falls through the cracks.

G'. Day. My name's Mike from Lone Wolf Unleashed. And so a while ago,

in fact, a little bit ago, it's one of my favorite episodes

of a podcast I've listened to, and that is the interview between Tim

Ferriss and Sam Caucus. I think I've mentioned Sam

on a previous episode because I'm a massive Sam

fan. And he

described this thing around when you're in a process,

when you're operating within multiple processes, and

how you judge performance is the way

that people communicate when their task is done.

So let me tell you a little bit of something about me,

okay? This is one of my main pet peeves. If you ever meet me and

you want to prank me, do this, okay? One of my

main pet peeves is when I'm doing something, I might be in a little

bit of a hurry and I want to get something done. And the thing that

I need that's usually in a place isn't in the place.

You know, it could be cooking a meal, it could be doing

anything. And if the thing isn't

there where it should be and I go to use it, it's

incredibly frustrating for me. What a

process is. It operates well when the

right thing is with the right person at the right time. Okay, so

right thing, you know, it might be my keys if I'm going to drive my

car. If my keys aren't in my cube, where they

normally are kept, then I can't drive my car.

This is further complicated when you're dealing with multiple people

in a process. Let's say we only have one car.

My wife uses the car and then returns the keys somewhere else.

She doesn't communicate where she's put the keys or that she's home so I can

use the car. That becomes a problem and it slows things down, particularly

if that car is needed. Right. If we are operating a

process, communication is part

of how you are performing that process. And

if you are not communicating while you're performing that task or

after you've performed that task, you have not performed that task.

And so what Sam has done in his KPIs

is he has not put communication as a separate performance

measure on their position descriptions.

It's just embedded. It's inherent in terms of how

they take care of responsibilities. Now, why is this important

for you? You know, you might be a small business owner, you might be a

solo founder. And the idea here is that we're taking

you from solo flounder. To a solo founder. Okay. We

don't want you sort of, you know, trying to swim. You feel like you're

sinking. We want to make sure that you are in a position to

execute. The way that we can execute is by having

things in the right place at the right time for you to do that.

Even if you are a solo business, you are dealing with other

stakeholders. The way that you communicate

and the way that they communicate with you is incredibly important

in terms of decreasing the

cycle time of your process. What

does that mean? It means that the process will take

less time to perform. If it takes less time to

perform, that means that you are freed up now to use

that time for something else. You're able to deliver those same outcomes in a

shorter period of time, and your cash flow should improve, particularly

if it's in the delivery process. What we need to be thinking about is

when we've documented our processes, and I've done a previous episode on that, you can

go check that out. As one of my early ones, you

have documented out what you do. Now, a process

map does deal specifically with what is done.

Okay, Verb down, doing something, moving through

multiple tasks to get to an outcome. The other part of

that is understanding which stakeholders you are communicating with

and in what respect, in what channel, in

what way. So what you want to be able to do is you want to

be able to have a clear understanding about who you're

communicating with and when. An example

of that is I'm currently working with a marketer and part of

his process with me is that I need to complete the foundations

document. It would be my turn to complete that foundations

document. And I let's say I have completed the foundation, which I have

now. If I don't tell him that I completed it, what does that mean for

him? It means that he has to follow up. It means that he's

not able to then do the part of the process that he's supposed to do

in terms of creating a strategy for running ads and

social posts, those types of things. So

he's slowed down by me not communicating that.

So there needs to be a way, a clear way, that people

know the expectation about how you're going to communicate with them up front

when you're doing something. That setting of the expectation is

really important because I've got another guy in my program

who runs a claims advocacy business. And

part of what he's going to start to do is

since he's documenting out his process, he's going to be able to start to

communicate to his Client very, very specifically, all the things that

they need to do in order to speed his part

up. Why is that important for them? Why does that matter?

It matters to them because if he's able to do a quicker job and a

better job, they get a better outcome. This is all what

it's about, right? It's about better outcomes. It's about doing things faster in a

better way. That frees up time, that leads to better

outcomes for both you, your supplier, and

your customer. So what we want to be able to do here is

create win, win, win scenarios. This is a game.

Business is a game. But we can do things that allow us to

be in a position where every party wins. And that's what I love about

business, is there's always a puzzle going on about how we

can all work together to continue to deliver value. So the

handoff is perhaps the most

important part of the process, is

how handoffs happen between the tasks. It's not

necessarily completing the tasks themselves. It's the

handoff and it's the communication that goes into what that

task was about. So have a think about this, because you might be in a

position now where you're wanting to hire your first employee. You might have followed

my podcast all the way through, and you've documented out how things

work, and you might go, well, a way for

me to save time in this particular area of my business is to bring someone

on. You have to make sure that those

communication channels are open and ready to use and that they

are used when the time tasks are being completed.

Because what you want to be able to do then, as a manager

is you want to make sure that the time that you spend managing, following

up. How did you go with that? Oh, can we check in? We need to

do a standup every day because I don't trust that you're going to do the

work. No one wants that. You know, no one wants

that.

You want to make sure that the time that you're spending managing is. Is

far less than your time that you would have taken doing those

tasks yourself. Right. Cause otherwise, you wouldn't have taken someone in the first place.

So that's my challenge to you this week. I want you to think about how

you're communicating with your different stakeholders in your business. I want you

to think about that as you're doing different, various processes,

how you can speed that up. You might come up

with some ideas about being able to just eliminate some of those channels

altogether, which is great. Okay. Which follows part of,

you know, the way of working of eliminating, delegating and

automating. The goal here is that you save time. The goal

here is that you're freed up, that you are unleashed, that you

are freed up from your business that's been consuming all your time.

Remember, you started your business for freedom and flexibility.

And we get freedom and flexibility by creating good systems.

And part of those systems is we have documented out and

those tasks that we need to be able to do within those processes are running

very well and that the communication between

those different tasks is also running very well. So I

challenge you with that this week. Have a go at doing that. Make sure,

document out your process, do a process map. Don't just write down on

there the tasks that need to be done. Write down on there the different

types of stakeholders that you're communicating with and, and in what channel and in

what respect that you're communicating them with and see if you

can refine some of those ways. Remember, if you are not communicating,

you are not performing. That goes to your suppliers as well and your

customers communicating back with you. So if you are a solo business and

that's happening, then that's something you need to keep your finger on. If you are

running a team, make sure that you're thinking about how you

build into your KPIs. This way of working, this

different way of working, that's not having communication set as a separate

measure, but it's embedded into the ways of working in

your business. Thank you so much for listening today. I appreciate your time.

You could have been doing so many other things with your time, but you decided

to hang out with me and learn how handing off in your process

is probably the most important thing that you can do in your business. I

will see you next.