From the Arsenal: Most teams escalate too early.

Story Of The Day: I got on the call expecting the usual.

Questions.
Blockers.
“Hey, what should we do here?”

Something breaks → it gets escalated → we solve it together.

But that’s not what I saw.

I got into the meeting room,
and only Bob was there to greet me.

"Where's everyone today?" I asked.

They're in the breakout rooms.
(The team was already moving)

Bob wasn’t asking for answers today:
he was walking through what they had already done.

Problems they had already pushed on.
Things they had already tested.

Not cleanly.
Not perfectly.

But they weren’t stuck.

At one point, he said:
“we’ve been through a few loops this week...”
​“I’ll shoot an email over to you… and two working days later… maybe I solved it.”

Most teams do this:

Something feels off → they ask
Something breaks → they escalate
Something’s uncertain → they wait

Bob's team stayed in it.
They weren’t escalating the problems to him the moment things got unclear anymore.
(in fact if you ever worked with top level creative teams they all problem solve)

They were figuring it out without him.
​They worked the problem long enough to see what was actually there.
They took the plays to reveal, dissect, and clear out the roadblocks.

And that’s when I knew:
Bob didn’t need me in the same way anymore.
(and that's exciting!)

Takeaways: A team doesn’t get unstuck when problems disappear. They get unstuck when they can shovel it out the way without you.

How to Apply It Today:

1. Work The Problem: Make “try before you ask” a team standard.
2. Don't Be The First Stop: You are no longer the first place problems go.
3. Complete One Loop: Ensure a full pass happens before it reaches you

Pro tip: Stay close enough to see far enough not to be needed first.

As promised: dialing in your video workflows 1% at a time.

Want help launching, scaling and upgrading video operating systems?
That’s what we do inside DenimStitch.

Don’t escalate too early,
-David

P.S. I've compiled the moments of my 1on1s with clients fixing their pipeline. Take a look something inside might resonate click for playlist​