The Real Cost of Over Engineering Your Process

Show Notes

Over-engineering your process quietly kills performance, slows teams down, and drains morale. In this episode, we unpack the real cost of over-engineering your process and show you how complexity creeps in with the best intentions. If your systems feel heavy, bloated, or harder to use than they should be, this conversation will help you simplify without losing control.

Joe Perkins (COO) and Brent Hillabrand (President and CEO) are joined by Justin Benson (VP of Intralogistics Solutions) and Ashley Watkins (Continuous Improvement Manager) to break down why leaders over-engineer as they grow, how blurred ownership hides accountability, and why complexity often breaks people before it breaks systems. From warehouse floors to back-office workflows, they share real examples of workarounds, redundant checks, siloed teams, and “no one owns it” moments—and what to do instead. If you lead operations, supply chain, or a growing team, you’ll walk away with a practical lens for removing friction and building processes that scale.

What you’ll learn:

 •  Why growth often leads to over-engineering—even when leaders don’t intend it

 •  The warning signs your system is bloated or no longer being used

 •  How blurred ownership destroys accountability and slows execution

 •  Why only a small percentage of most processes truly add value

 •  The hidden cost of redundant checks and too many handoffs

 •  How workarounds form—and what they reveal about broken systems

 •  What breaks first under stress: people, flow, quality, or morale

 •  How standardization and continuous improvement actually enable innovation

 •  Why psychological safety matters when simplifying complex systems

 •  A practical way to strip complexity without sacrificing performance

Don’t risk burnout, turnover, and stalled growth because your processes are heavier than they need to be. Learn how to identify over-engineering early, remove what no longer serves your team, and build systems that scale without breaking. Article mentioned in the episode: https://www.itpro.com/software/software-complexity-is-burning-through-enterprise-budgets-draining-productivity-and-burning-out-employees-and-its-a-gbp32-billion-problem-that-cant-be-solved

Key Moments:

00:00 – Why Systems Get Overengineered

00:55 – Meet Ashley Watkins & Process Improvement

08:00 – How Growth Creates Complexity

16:00 – Ownership, Silos, and Accountability Gaps

24:00 – The Human Cost: Burnout, Morale, Turnover

32:00 – Why Teams Defend Broken Processes

45:00 – How to Simplify and Fix Broken Systems

Transcript

We’re back with another episode of Handled It, and today’s conversation is all about complexity—why it happens, how it shows up in operations, and what it actually costs organizations.

From overengineered systems to underutilized technology, this discussion unpacks how good intentions in process design can quickly turn into friction on the floor—and what leaders can do about it.

Why Do Leaders Over engineer Systems?

Leaders don’t intend to overengineer systems—it just happens.

As organizations grow, complexity increases. What once felt simple and controlled becomes harder to manage, and there’s a natural instinct to build something bigger, more structured, and more sophisticated.

But that instinct can be misleading.

You can convince yourself that you need something more advanced, when in reality, it’s just your ego telling you that more equals better.

Sometimes the simplest process is still the most effective one—you’ve just outgrown your comfort with it.

What Signals That a System Has Become Overbuilt?

One of the clearest signals is simple: no one is using it.

When systems become too complex, associates create workarounds. And those workarounds aren’t standardized—they vary from person to person, making the process inconsistent and difficult to scale.

Another major indicator is what breaks under pressure.

It’s not the system—it’s the people.

When processes are overengineered, the first thing to fail is the team responsible for executing them.

What Is the Real Cost of Complexity?

In most operations, only about 5% of a process actually adds value for the customer.

The rest—approvals, documentation, internal steps—may feel important, but they don’t directly impact the outcome the customer cares about.

As complexity builds, so do inefficiencies:

  • More handoffs

  • More layers

  • More opportunities for breakdown

Instead of improving performance, these additions often slow teams down and create unnecessary friction.

How Does Complexity Impact Teams and Culture?

As processes become more complex, ownership starts to blur.
When too many people are involved, accountability becomes unclear. It becomes difficult to identify root causes, and even harder to drive meaningful improvement.

The impact shows up quickly:

  • Burnout increases
  • Work quality declines
  • Decision-making slows
  • Turnover rises

Complexity doesn’t just affect operations—it affects culture.

Why Do Organizations Defend Broken Processes?

Even when processes aren’t working, teams often defend them.

Why? Because they’re familiar.

There’s a human element at play—comfort, fear of change, and the desire to maintain control.

At the same time, organizations often try to solve these problems by adding technology. But instead of fixing the issue, that can add even more layers and make the system harder to manage.

Does Technology Solve Complexity or Add to It?

There’s a common assumption that technology will simplify operations.

But in many cases, it does the opposite.

Software becomes layered on top of other systems, creating dependencies and increasing the difficulty of making changes. What starts as a solution can quickly become a limitation.

The problem isn’t the technology—it’s applying it to a process that hasn’t been clearly defined or simplified first.

What’s the Right Approach to Simplifying Operations?

The starting point is clarity.

Before adding systems or tools, organizations need to understand what the process is actually trying to achieve.

That means asking:

  • What is the end goal?
  • What steps truly add value?
  • What can be removed without impacting the outcome?

From there, processes can be rebuilt in a way that supports both efficiency and scalability.

Technology should come after—not before—that work is done.

Why Continuous Improvement Still Matters

Optimization isn’t something you do once. It’s something you build into how your organization operates.

Processes evolve. Teams change. Customer expectations shift.

Organizations that succeed are the ones that continuously evaluate and refine how they work—rather than assuming they’ve already figured it out.

Key Takeaways

 • Complexity often grows unintentionally as organizations scale
 • If no one is using a system, it’s a clear sign something is wrong
 • Only a small portion of most processes actually adds customer value
 • Overengineered systems impact people first—through burnout and inefficiency
 • Technology should support processes, not attempt to fix broken ones
 • Continuous improvement is essential for long-term success

Closing Thoughts

Complexity isn’t always the problem—but unnecessary complexity is.

The most effective organizations aren’t the ones that add the most. They’re the ones that know what to remove.

Simplify the process first. Then build from there.