Why I Stopped Mapping Only the Value Stream
The biggest blockers aren’t in the workflow — they’re in the waiting.
👋 Hey, Carlos here! Welcome to “The Holistic Leader”, your weekly source of simple and honest leadership, Agile, Management & team insights.
Most Agile leaders I meet are great at mapping the value stream.
They know how to follow the flow from idea to delivery.
They can spot blockers, optimize handoffs, and improve team efficiency.
But here’s what I’ve learned over the years:
👉 The value stream shows how work moves. It doesn’t show how long work waits.
And in most orgs, that waiting is the real issue.
The Team That Looked Fast (But Wasn’t)
A senior engineering Manager at a BIG insurance company told me:
“Our team delivers fast. Velocity looks good. But features still take months to reach production.”
So we mapped the full process.
And the problem became clear.
Engineers worked on stories for just 3-4 days.
But those stories sat idle for days or weeks.
Waiting on:
Legal reviews
PM decisions
UX finalization
Backend support
Or just... nothing
They weren’t slow.
They were stuck, and that was the reality!
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Why I Started Mapping the Delay Stream
As an Agile Coach, I used to focus only on team flow.
But most delays don’t happen within teams.
They happen between them.
That’s why I started asking new questions:
Where does work pause?
Who are we always waiting for?
What gets blocked over and over?
What’s sitting, untouched, in “In Progress”?
That’s when leaders start seeing the actual system.
🎯 A Coaching Example That Changed Everything
I worked with an internal tools team that checked all the Agile boxes:
Clean boards, WIP limits, retros, good velocity.
But deadlines were still missed.
We mapped both the value stream and the delay stream.
Here’s what we found:
5 days for design sign-off
4 days waiting for PM prioritization
7–10 days for Legal reviews
We didn’t change the team.
We changed what the team was waiting on.
➡️ Cycle time dropped from 19 days to 9.
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🧠 What I Ask Leaders Now
When I talk to execs or anyone with power decision, I ask:
“Where is work sitting the longest—and what’s the cost of that delay?”
This is where Theory of Constraints comes in.
Find your worst delay
Improve that one part
Let the results show up in other areas.
You don’t need to optimize everything.
You need to fix where work waits the longest.
Final Thought
Most companies normalize delay.
They think it’s just part of how work gets done.
They plan around it.
But if you focus on reducing it, even just a little you unlock:
Faster delivery
Better collaboration
Real market advantage
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📌 Reflection for You
Where does work sit idle in your system?
And what might change if you fixed just that?
I’d love to hear how you’re seeing this show up in your teams.
Reply here or hit comment—I read every one.
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Thanks for reading
See you next week!
- Carlos✌️
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Well done!