Do you know that famous scene from the I Love Lucy show, where Lucy and Ethel get jobs on a chocolate assembly line? If not, I Love Lucy was a 1950s sit-com starring Lucille Ball. And in this particular episode Lucy and her best friend Ethel wrap chocolates as they move by on a conveyer belt. But the chocolates start piling up.
Lucy and Ethel’s slow performance would be a bottleneck on the chocolate assembly line. A bottleneck is a point of congestion that causes delays in the workflow; it’s something that prevents a process from going any faster, like the slow (and only) cashier in a grocery store. Or slow wrappers of chocolate, that limit how fast the chocolate conveyer belt can go. When Lucy and Ethel can’t keep up, they solve the problem by shoving chocolates in their smocks, hats, and mouths, so as not to let any naked chocolates slip by into the boxing room.
A bottleneck can also be referred to as a choke point—or something that stops a process right in its track—like the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in 2021.
In project management, we might consider two types of bottlenecks—systems based and performance based. Systems-based bottlenecks happen when there is something wrong with the system. For example, only having one checkout lane in a busy grocery store.
Performance-based bottlenecks can happen due to an unmanageable workload, lack of planning, or lack of training, like in the case of Lucy and Ethel. But, for an intellectual or creative worker, the bottleneck might not be as obvious as chocolates, checkouts, or container ships.
In the publish or perish world of a scientist, there are many potential bottlenecks. Recently, a colleague was lamenting how he had been waiting for over eight months for a co-author to return a journal article. This co-author blamed the delay on his virtual stack of fifteen publications waiting for his input. The co-author might be be quick to place this type of bottleneck in the systems-based category. But if it is the same co-author causing delays time after time and other co-authors are timely, this is a performance-based bottle neck.
This got me to thinking about one of my own publications that had been under internal review for a few months. This is an example of a systems-based bottleneck because the agency requires all publications to go through certain check points. And this is a particularly long and sensitive document, so it has additional checks.
One thing I always like to mention when I am teaching project management to scientists, is that I don’t like to be a bottleneck. Why hold a project up when someone else can be working on it?
If I have two publications in the works and if we have an early-career colleague that is anxious to get their first publication, I’ll mentor them in the writing process on one of the publications. For peer review, I don’t accept a request for a peer review if I already have one in my stack, unless my expertise is the only expertise that will do—which is never the case! I can say no.
Let’s consider that you might be the bottleneck in your own writing and publishing process.
Does the stall come at the very beginning of the process? Do you have a problem getting those very first words on paper? Or does the stall come a little further down the line, when the writing project needs to be passed along to peers or your agent or a publisher?
Idea generation might be a problem for some. Although most writers I know have too many ideas to act on. One reason for lack of ideas can be a limited perspective. Consider getting other points of view as you brainstorm.
Research is another possible kink. While quite necessary in non-fiction, focusing on research while you’re writing fiction, can be an excuse not to write.
“The scholar's greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.”
– Steven King
Even in non-fiction, there are millions of papers out there that could be read and cited, so prioritizing how you’re going to do that research is key.
Many bottlenecks are simply due to perfectionism. Not wanting to put any “bad” writing down on paper, not wanting your peers to see your imperfect grammar, and wanting that agent or publisher to see your best work.
When I was almost ready to send A Touch of Blue to agents and publishers, the hold-up was that I did not have the best, marketable and magical title. In order to get that manuscript out the door, had to give up on the-worlds-most-brilliant-title and just submit.
“The bottleneck is never code or creativity; it’s lack of clarity.”
- Scott Berkun
For creatives, it is worth trying to understand the kinks in your flow. Especially if you primarily work alone, consider that you might be the bottleneck in the proverbial assembly line of your own productivity.
Lucy and Ethel evaluated their situation and ate the chocolates. But they were more worried about being fired than being a bottleneck. A solution to an intellectual or creative bottleneck might not be as easy. But understanding the kinks in our own processes, can help us manage and control the pace and flow of our work. So, let those chocolates fly by and choose a topic to focus on, pass a manuscript on to a colleague, or hit publish.
That image looks like they’re all wearing masks 🎭
My advice would be to make your tasks as visible as possible and the whole team’s tasks if you are managing a project. A Kanban board is nice and simple to use and very effective at showing bottlenecks.