The reason you lie awake worrying about your team is not that you need a more elaborate task-tracking system. Lia introduces the Snippets Template, a lightweight weekly update tool that gives leaders a bird’s-eye view of priorities, wins, and blockers without micromanaging. This episode is especially useful for remote team leaders, small business owners, and anyone who feels perpetually out of the loop on what their team is actually doing.
This episode is part of the Team Operations, Systems & SOPs series. Browse all episodes →
Mic drop moments
“…the heartbeat of your team, the way to make things run more smoothly is through having a lot of clarity, as clear as you can, being as clear as you can around how to get things done on your team.”
“…the worst time to solve a problem with how your work is getting done on your team is when four or five people have left the team, and it’s like a huge disaster.”
“…if you’re feeling like whatever you’re going to introduce is adding too much complexity that you need a whole person to run it or roll it out, that’s a signal the solution isn’t the right one.”
Episode highlights
Why everyone thinks operations are too complicated
Lia opens by naming the real culprit: bad past experiences. A bloated project-management tool gets rolled out with zero training. People sink. They decide “process” is the enemy. Or a consultant hands over a long list of problems with no solutions attached, leaving the owner holding a bill and a mess. Those experiences create a story that touching operations will make things harder, not easier. Lia’s reframe: that story is wrong, and it is costing teams every day.
The three patterns that make operations feel heavy
Lia breaks down the most common traps:
1. The over-engineered tool. Picking a system with every bell and whistle (ClickUp, Asana, even Slack) and expecting people to figure it out. The tool becomes the problem, not the solution. 2. Process without diagnosis. Layering on procedures before anyone has asked, “What problem are we actually solving?” The result feels bureaucratic and earns eye-rolls. 3. Problems without solutions. A consultant (or an internal review) surfaces every weak spot but hands the owner nothing actionable. The owner feels exposed and then avoids the topic entirely.
Clarity is the actual solution
Lia’s core argument: the heartbeat of a well-run team is clarity. Not a sophisticated system. Not a thick policy manual. Just being as clear as possible about how things get done. Expectations, priorities, decision-making, meeting rhythms, what success looks like. When everyone understands those things, the team fires on all cylinders. When they do not, every small gap compounds into a bigger one.
Communication is the mechanism, not a nice-to-have
The biggest gap Lia sees on teams is assumption. Leaders assume people picked up the shorthand, or that they have used this tool before, or that the standard is obvious. It is not. The solve is mapping it out, getting it on paper, and translating what lives in the leader’s head into something the whole team can act on. That is exactly what the Ops Playbook does: it creates a shared source of truth for how the business runs.
The cost of waiting until the ship is huge
Lia is direct about timing: the worst moment to fix your operations is when four people have already left and you are short-staffed and still trying to hire. The best moment is right now, when things are working well enough to make course corrections cheaply. She gives three early warning signs that a team member is thinking about leaving: asking frequently about growth and promotion (a signal they feel underutilized), a dip in work quality, and feeling over-capacity without recognition. Each of those is a small, solvable problem if caught early. Ignored, each becomes a resignation.
If the solution feels complicated, it is the wrong solution
Lia closes with a simple diagnostic: if whatever you are about to introduce requires a dedicated person just to run or roll it out, it is too complicated. From over a decade driving operations at large tech companies, her consistent finding is that simple shifts get you 80 percent of the way there. Save the sophisticated strategic thinking for where the business is going. Do not overcomplicate making it easier to get work done. Lean into operations, get support if you need it, and let the visionary thinking you already have work at the level it is meant to.
Related episodes in this cluster
- Ep 230: Why your team problems are actually systems problems (and what to fix first). When your team feels chaotic, unclear, or constantly dependent on you, the culprit is almost never the people. It is the absence of simple, repeatable systems that tell everyone how to operate. Lia walks through the real cost of missing systems, two client stories with immediate results, and how to roll out new processes so your team gets bought in from day one. This episode is essential for any owner who says they hate process but secretly hates the chaos more.
- Ep 215: Why your team seems entitled (and what is really causing it). When your team feels entitled, the root cause is almost never attitude. It is a clarity gap, and the fix starts with you asking what role you played in creating the dynamic. Lia walks through two questions every owner and leader should ask before writing off a team member, and explains how operational clarity through an Ops Playbook prevents these friction points from forming in the first place. This episode is most useful for founders, small business owners, and managers who feel like they are constantly negotiating with their teams.
- Ep 198: Why your team asked for training but still won’t show up (and how to fix it). When team members ask for development but skip the training you built, it usually comes down to three fixable problems: they feel too stretched to step away, leaders are not modeling that the training matters, and the content itself has not earned their trust yet. Lia walks through each obstacle and gives you concrete language and moves to address all three before your next training. This episode is especially useful for business owners, HR leaders, and team leads who have already invested in development and watched the room stay empty.
- Ep 177: How to stop waking up at 3am worried about your team (and what to do instead). The reason you lie awake worrying about your team is not that you need a more elaborate task-tracking system. Lia introduces the Snippets Template, a lightweight weekly update tool that gives leaders a bird’s-eye view of priorities, wins, and blockers without micromanaging. This episode is especially useful for remote team leaders, small business owners, and anyone who feels perpetually out of the loop on what their team is actually doing.
Want to go deeper?
The Ops Playbook. Systems and SOPs for teams that need to scale without breaking.
Full transcript (click to expand)
And now we’re having to move a lot bigger of a ship. We’re having to make a lot bigger of changes that feel costly. But I’ll tell you, even that person that like looked under the hood and uncovered all these problems, think about if you were able to identify those when they were little kind of baby sprouts instead of being kind of monumental problems that are really hard to solve. Welcome to the Managing Made Simple podcast. I’m Leah Garvin, your host and team operations consultant.
Through this show and my signature Ops Playbook, I condense a decade of experience driving team operations in some of the most influential companies in tech to save you time, money, and stress. It doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner who realized that running a team isn’t as easy as you thought it would be, or a new manager looking to learn the ropes, or are a seasoned manager ready to up their game, everyone is welcome to hang out with Managing Made Simple.
From conflicts to feedback to delegating and more, we leave no stone unturned when it comes to what makes us love managing, kind of hate it, and everything in between. Let’s go. Welcome back to the show. Today we are talking about how to make team operations easier. So one of the things that I hear so much when I talk about the work that I do around driving team operations and around helping business owners optimize their team operations is, sadly, is that I don’t want to think about all that.
That’s all too complicated. And, you know, this is something that I want to help us reframe today. Let’s shake that perspective because the reality is, is that team operations are about simplifying everything, but making it easier to get your work done. But before we get there, let’s talk about, well, why do people think that it’s too complicated? And I think a lot of us have experienced a number of the same things. You know, first, we’ve maybe introduced something to solve problems like a work tracking system or a timesheets thing that’s really, really complicated and cumbersome.
And we got something that has all the bells and whistles, all the features. I’ve heard this happen with things like ClickUp, Sonnet. They’re like very slack, even they’re very robust. They do tons of things. And that becomes the problem. We’re trying to solve every single problem with everything. And we’re trying to get people up and running on that system quickly. We haven’t really trained people of how to use it. We’re just like, hey, we’re going to use this new system to track things.
And so people think, ugh, I don’t want to use that. It actually slowed people down. It actually made things more complicated. And so that’s one of the big issues. I think rolling out a complicated system that’s supposed to solve everyone’s problems and both not landing, you know, why are we doing this, not training people onto the system and kind of leaving people to sort of sink or swim. Well, the reality is they often swim and then they think, you know, like processes are complicated.
We don’t want to do that. Another issue I think that can make team operations feel complicated is when we haven’t really diagnosed, well, what are the problems that we want to solve? And so we don’t look into that. We think, oh, we need a new process for this. And then we need a process for this. And we implement a bunch of processes, which feels pretty heavy handed. And then we don’t really, again, do the work to train people and explain the why.
So people think, oh, process, like it’s so hard to get things done. It’s so bureaucratic. It’s so corporate in this company. And so that can make team operations feel complicated. So for example, I was working in a team where we didn’t have a system for how to track our work. And out of the gate, a lot of the designers that I was working with felt like, well, you know, I don’t want to sort of feel like I’m being monitored or, you know, all my work is sort of under a microscope.
I kind of just want to like make sure that, you know, I have time to ideate and I’m free. And I think one of the assumptions that was right there was that, well, if we sort of lift the hood up and start looking at how work’s getting done, we’re going to start making the process too rigid. And that assumption is one of those things we want to shift because when I introduced a work tracking system and landed, you know, what’s in it for them and how to make it easier, it ended up really making things, you know, work as intended, making things easier.
But we had to first bust that assumption. The third thing I think that can run in, that folks can kind of run into, which makes team operations feel complicated or like it just creates new issues is maybe you’ve hired a consultant or you have someone working on team operation and they start uncovering all these different problems and they maybe write a report or give you a readout or tell you, you got to fix everything about your business.
Sorry. And, and they give you the problems without solutions. And I think it’s from having worked in tech where, especially at a company like Google, like you don’t present problems without coming up with solutions. Like that’s not helpful. And it’s really recognized kind of in the culture of the company that you got to present problems and solutions. But I think a lot of times we work with folks and they don’t present it that way. They sort of present the problems and you’re supposed to figure it out on your own and then you’re left hanging.
Or maybe you hire a consultant and the problem diagnosis costs one thing, but the implementation is really where they make their money and they’re actually leaving you hanging on that side. And that can be pretty frustrating because, well, maybe you don’t have the, you know, the funds to be able to fund the implementation. And so when we feel like we’ve been unearthed all these problems that then we have to solve that we don’t have the budget or we’re not kind of have the skillset to solve it.
Well, yeah, we can feel like I don’t want to even go near team operations. So I get it. And the reason I’m bringing these things up is because, you know, the heartbeat of your team, the way to make things run more smoothly is through having a lot of clarity, as clear as you can, being as clear as you can around how to get things done on your team. There’s really nothing more important. And everything I talk about on Managing Made Simple is about really clarifying the how.
We talk about expectations, about delegating, about feedback, about priorities. All of this ties into how things are done in a team because when team members understand what success looks like, what the priorities are, you know, how decisions are made and communicated, when we come together as a team and meet, when everyone’s really clear on that, now we can be firing all cylinders. And these things are not complicated. They don’t require complicated processes. So I would ask you if you’re feeling like work tracking is complicated and approvals are complicated and how we budget is complicated, or all like these kind of little sort of process-y related things are feeling complicated.
I invite you to ask yourself the question, how can I make this simpler? How can I reduce steps? How can I make things more clear? And really the solve here, this perspective shift that moving into simplicity, this is going to come from a lot more communication. And I think one of the biggest things, the biggest gaps on teams is we assume a lot of people understand this, you know, like with the tracking system, maybe some people have used that system before, but other people haven’t.
Maybe some people have been on the team longer and so they kind of understand you’re shorthand for what you want for something and other team members don’t. The biggest way we create this clarity is through communication. And that’s why I create literally a playbook for businesses on how their business runs, how we get things done, how decisions are made, right? How we track work, how we measure success. Because we have to translate what is in our mind as that leader, as that visionary, as that manager into how it’s actually going to get done.
And people need specific examples. They need to understand, you know, what we mean, what the nuances are, and how it applies to our specific job. And so that’s what I want you to think through, you know, the way to make things simpler, the way to reduce complexity with, you know, how your team is operating, is by mapping out, is by getting it on paper. Because that’s where we can see, well, where are things complicated? So we want to ask ourselves, what is feeling complicated?
What are the sticking points? Is it that people don’t understand the process? Is it that we’ve really unearthed too many things that we can deal with, and we need different kinds of support? Is that we’re just talking problems and not solutions? What is that gap? Where are you feeling like, I don’t really want to dig into this? But honestly, if it’s that you feel like, oh, that’s something we can solve later, I urge you to reframe that thinking.
Because we always want to be looking proactively, as business owners, as managers, is how can we make our team better? The worst time to solve a problem with how your work is getting done on your team is when four or five people have left the team, and it’s like a huge disaster, and you’re also trying to hire, and you’re having multiple people doing, covering two people’s jobs. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been talking with a business owner or manager, and they’ve said, I want to be a better manager.
I just don’t know the steps. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. And frankly, I’ve felt that way, too, even when I had been managing people for a while, because this stuff is hard, and it changes all the time. So the last time someone asked me for the steps, I made a cheat sheet. Head to liagarvin.com slash scorecard for 20 things you can do this month to be a better manager. This is literally your tell me what to do, and I’ll do it steps to motivate your team and get better results.
There’s no time like the present. Grab the scorecard right freaking now, liagarvin.com slash scorecard. That’s a lot of times when folks reach out, when folks want more manager development training, when folks want team workshops, when folks want something like the Ops Playbook, is when there’s a burning fire that they’re trying to put out. Actually, the best time to work on this is when things are working effectively so that you can keep that ship running and keep that ship humming along.
So if you’re feeling like, I don’t know really when and how to invest, the moment is now, because that’s what’s going to get you able to hit that next milestone. And when we start to plateau, it’s often because we didn’t fix things that were really sort of easy course corrections earlier, and now we’re having to move a lot bigger of a ship, we’re having to make a lot bigger of changes that feel costly. But I’ll tell you, even that person that like looked under the hood and then covered all these problems, think about if you were able to identify those when they were little kind of baby sprouts instead of being kind of monumental problems that now are really hard to solve.
Take for example, a couple folks have left your team and you’re understaffed and you’re having a difficulty hiring. Okay. There are a lot of warning signs for a team that someone is thinking about leaving. Okay. For example, a team member is asking you a lot about, you know, career growth opportunities and promotion and taking on more responsibilities. That is often a signal that they’re feeling a little bit unfulfilled in their role. Maybe they’re feeling underestimated, right?
When someone says, Hey, I’d like to take on more. I think a lot of times that means, you know, I want to grow. I want to maybe make more money, or I don’t think you’re fully utilizing me in the full capacity. I know for myself, when I said to a manager, Hey, I’d love to get involved with this thing, or I have some ideas about this new space. I was signaling, I’m more capable than you’re, than you’re like allowing me to be, to be demonstrating.
Let me try this. So that’s a sign that folks often share early on. Another sign is if someone’s work quality is starting to dip, right? They’re starting to think, Oh, I don’t really know if I like this anymore. If you notice that, that’s an opportunity to check in with that person saying, Hey, you know, I love the work you’re doing. You’re usually kind of, you know, delivering at this output. I’ve noticed a little bit of a shift.
Is there anything I can do to better support you? Okay. So recognizing it early and saying something then. Another thing could be someone is feeling fresh or maybe they’re, they’re covering for another role or they’re feeling over capacity and they’re thinking, Hey, I’m not getting paid to do two jobs. What’s this about? And so that can create someone thinking about looking for another job. When that kind of thing comes up, it’s a great idea to talk with someone and say, Hey, I know you’re covering for someone, you know, here’s the plan to find a new hire.
Here’s my plan to make sure you’re compensated or recognized for this work, right? Whatever that is showing someone and they see you, I recognize it. You’re not being taken for granted. Those three examples are something that if we identified that issue earlier, we could have prevented someone from leaving. And so then we’re not solving the problem at the stage of I’m missing four key team members and I can’t run my business where we solve it way earlier.
So that’s the reason we want to look at how our team is being run. That’s the reason we do that. Because if we’re thinking, Oh, it’s so complicated. I want to get under the hood. Then there’s all these things that were actually really simple that we could have solved. And that’s the thing. I think if, if you’re feeling like it’s over complicated, if you’re feeling like whatever you’re going to introduce is adding too much complexity that you need a whole person to run it or roll it out, that’s a signal the solution isn’t the right one.
Because I assure you from over a decade of experience driving team operations in large companies, that even when, you know, there’s so many moving parts, so many stakeholders, so many things going on, the solutions were always so much simpler than we, we made them out to be. And that when you make simple shifts, you get 80% of the way there. And wouldn’t it be pretty freaking awesome if you get 80% of the way there on all these little things that came up, right?
We, we want to use that complicated strategic thinking for, you know, where our business is going to grow, but we don’t have to overcomplicate making it easier to get work done. We really don’t. And so I urge you to, instead of being like, I don’t want to look at operations to embrace it and say, okay, how can I look at this? What are a couple of shifts we could make and lean in on getting that support if you need it?
Because as that visionary, as the big picture thinker, your zone of genius is in driving that business to the next level and what are the big ideas. So get that support you need on the operations. Get someone to help you map it out. Hey, that’s what I do. I love helping that visionary really translate what’s in their mind into getting it on paper. And when you do that, now you have a plan that everybody understands and all of your team is going to be bought into.
And that’s how you scale. See you next time. That’s all I have for today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Managing Made Simple podcast, where my goal is to demystify the job of people management so that together we can make the workplace somewhere everyone can thrive. With that said, let’s spread the word. If you love this episode, please pass it along to someone who might benefit from it. See you next time.
Questions this episode answers
Why does team operations feel so complicated and overwhelming?
It usually comes down to three things: rolling out a complex tool without explaining the why or training people on it, adding processes without first diagnosing the actual problems, or working with someone who uncovers issues but hands you a list of problems with no solutions. None of these mean operations itself is complicated. They mean the approach was off. The goal of good team operations is to simplify how work gets done, not add layers to it.
How do I simplify the way my team operates without creating more work?
Start by asking yourself what is actually feeling complicated and where the sticking points are. Then map it out on paper so you can see where things break down. The fix is almost always more communication, not more process. When your team is clear on how decisions get made, how work gets tracked, and what success looks like, things start to run on their own. Simple shifts get you 80% of the way there. You do not need a complicated system to make that happen.
When is the best time to fix team operations problems?
The best time is when things are working reasonably well, not when the building is on fire. If you wait until people have left and you are understaffed and scrambling to hire, you are trying to turn a much bigger ship. Small problems that felt easy to ignore early on become expensive, painful changes later. Catching a warning sign like dipping work quality or an employee asking for more responsibility is a chance to fix something small before it becomes someone walking out the door.
How do I know if a new tool or process I'm introducing is too complicated for my team?
If the solution feels like it needs a dedicated person just to run or roll it out, that is a signal the solution is wrong for your team right now. A good process makes it easier to get work done, it does not slow people down. If people are avoiding a system you introduced, the problem is usually that you did not explain why it matters or train people on how to use it, not that they are resistant to change. Start simpler and build from there.
What are early warning signs that a team member might be thinking about leaving?
Three signs come up often. First, someone starts asking frequently about career growth, promotions, or taking on new responsibilities. That usually signals they feel underutilized or want to grow faster. Second, their work quality starts to dip, which is a cue to check in and ask how you can better support them. Third, they are covering extra workload and showing signs of burnout without acknowledgment. Catching any of these early and addressing them directly, with a clear plan and recognition, can prevent a departure before it happens.