When a Team is Slow, Check the Inputs

There’s a game called Factorio where you build giant automated factories from scratch. You start with a pickaxe and end up with a sprawling, hyper-efficient ecosystem of conveyor belts, robotic arms, and machines—all turning raw materials into complex outputs.

In the game, each machine takes in specific inputs, processes them, and spits out a product. One machine makes gears. Another makes circuit boards. Another takes both and assembles engines. It’s an elegant chain—until something stalls.

And when something does stall? You go investigate.

You click into a machine that’s not producing fast enough, expecting to find something broken. But often it’s not the machine. It’s the inputs. Maybe it’s getting two of the three things it needs. Maybe one of the belts is empty. Maybe the upstream factory isn’t producing fast enough. The machine itself is fine—it just can’t do its job.

This is exactly how it works with teams.

Before You Try to Speed Up a Team, Check What They're Being Fed

In organizations, it’s easy to see a team missing a deadline or moving slower than expected and assume the problem is the team. So we start pushing. More standups. More oversight. More urgency. And when those don’t “fix” the issue? We blame the people.

But just like in Factorio, most teams don’t grind to a halt because they’re lazy or broken. They stall because they’re not getting the inputs they need.

Inputs like:

• Clear, stable requirements
• Timely prioritization and tradeoffs
• Context and strategy
• Decisions from leadership
• Dependencies from upstream teams

These are the conveyor belts and inserters of knowledge work. And when they’re blocked, the team can’t produce—no matter how hard they try.

What Slowness Actually Looks Like

Most teams don’t sit around twiddling their thumbs when they don’t have what they need. They spin. They fill the time. They make assumptions. They start things they’ll have to revisit later. Work continues—but not always in the right direction. This makes things look “busy” without actually delivering value.

And worse, no one’s checking the belts. They just keep pushing the machine harder.

Act Like a Systems Engineer, Not a Productivity Coach

If you notice a slowdown or inconsistency in a team’s output, pause before jumping to “we need to go faster.” First ask:

• What is this team waiting on?
• What decisions or inputs are delayed, partial, or ambiguous?
• How reliable is the upstream flow?
• Are they trying to produce with half the ingredients?

If this sounds basic, it’s because it is. But it’s also overlooked constantly. Because most of these inputs are invisible—until you go look for them.

And unless you look, the problem keeps getting framed as a people issue, rather than a system one.

Throughput Problems Are Often Supply Problems

You don’t solve an output issue by yelling at the assembly machine. You fix the belt. You fix the inserter. You fix the system around it. Same goes for teams.

The right fix might be:

• A better intake process
• Earlier involvement in planning
• Faster handoffs from a dependent team
• Less thrash from shifting priorities
• Clarity about what “done” actually means

The fix is probably not another dashboard, meeting, or push for velocity.

Better Flow = Better Output

If your team seems slow, don’t start with the team. Start with the flow. Map the inputs. Check the handoffs. Go upstream. Find out what’s missing, ambiguous, late, or assumed.

Speed doesn’t come from pressure. It comes from clarity and flow.

Machines know this. Smart factories know this.

And if you want your team to perform like a well-oiled system—you need to think like a factory engineer.