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Free minibook · PDF, 21 pages
Cut the Approvals and Meetings That No Longer Protect Anything, and Keep the Ones That Do
A new supplier for a table leg: same dimensions, same finish, lower price. It needed nine signatures and took 23 working days. One signature belonged to a plant that had closed years ago. And one of them caught real errors every month. This free minibook shows you how to tell dead weight from load-bearing steps before you cut.
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By Todd Hagopian, who has led business transformations at Berkshire Hathaway, Illinois Tool Works and Whirlpool.
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Who it's for
People who run an operation or a function inside a mature company, where routine changes take weeks and the calendar is full of standing meetings. List every approval and recurring meeting, ask what failure each was built to prevent and whether that failure can still happen, ask the people who do the work, then cut, keep, lighten or trial each step and record why.
Not for you if removing mandated controls required by law, regulation, safety standards, customer contracts or your auditors. Those stay unless legal or compliance confirms otherwise. The book is a new synthesis built from parts of the author's work and outside research, not an established Todd Hagopian framework.
What you'll learn
- Every Step Had a Reason
- Count the Friction
- Ask What It Prevents
- Cut, Keep, Lighten or Trial
- Remove It Safely
Plus a final action plan and a worksheet you can use the same week.
Key takeaways
- Every step had a reason. Adding is easy and removing is hard, so the step outlives the problem it was built for.
- Start with two inventories: thirty days of approvals, and every recurring meeting with its person-hours.
- The load-bearing test: what failure was this built to prevent, and is that failure still possible?
- Sort each step: cut, keep, lighten or trial.
- Remove with a net under you: a watch measure, an owner and a trigger for every trial.
From the book
The change was a new supplier for a table leg. Same dimensions, same finish, lower price. An engineer could explain it in one sentence.
It needed nine signatures. It took 23 working days.
Nobody in the chain was lazy. Each signer had a reason to be there, or had inherited one. One signature belonged to a plant that had closed years ago. One belonged to a check that software now did automatically. Nobody could say what one of them was for at all.
And one of them caught real errors every month.
That's the problem with bureaucracy. From the outside, every step looks the same: a box on a form, a name on a list. Some steps are dead weight. Some are holding the building up. If you cut by feel, you'll cut both.
This book shows you how to tell them apart before you cut.
Todd Hagopian, Obsolete or Load-Bearing?, from the prologue "Nine Signatures"
Frequently asked questions
If these steps are useless, why are they still here?
Because adding is easy and removing is hard. Each approval was added after a problem, by someone with good intentions. The problem faded, the people moved on and the step stayed.
How do I know which steps are still protecting something?
Ask the load-bearing test of every step: what failure was this built to prevent, and is that failure still possible? If nobody can name the failure, the step is likely obsolete. If the records show it still stops or changes work, or the people you ask disagree, call it "can't tell" and trial it.
What if I cut a step and something breaks?
Then you want to find out fast, know what caused it and put it back. Build that into every removal: a watch measure for the failure the step might have been catching, an owner and a trigger.
Related free minibooks
The 70-Percent Rule
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The Rules Worth Breaking
Find the industry assumptions capping your growth, rank them and test one before anyone else does.
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Plug the Profit Leaks
Find the customers and products quietly draining your margin, then fix, reprice or exit.
Read moreRelated reading on the blog
- How to Run a Meeting That Decides
- 5 Leaders Who Bury Companies in Process
- The Complexity Tax in Your Business
Go further
Stagnation Assassin: The Anti-Consultant Manifesto is about the bigger fight: the conditions that make companies decay from the inside, the team you need to fight them and the tools to keep a recovered business moving. It's available now. Todd's next book, 10-Minute Transformation, is out February 23, 2027.
The full library
Two ways to get it. Preorder now and it ships on release. Or buy on launch day, February 23, 2027, and get three free audiobooks (10-Minute Transformation, Stagnation Assassin and The Unfair Advantage) plus the full minibook library, on the honor system. Preorders don't include the launch-day bonuses.
About the author
Todd Hagopian, The Stagnation Assassin, is VP of Product Strategy and Marketing. He has led business transformations at Berkshire Hathaway, Illinois Tool Works, and Whirlpool Corporation, with $3B+ shareholder value across five turnarounds. He speaks to leadership teams on business transformation, turnarounds, and breaking stagnation.