If an approval step changed nothing in 20 instances…
When approval steps in a process have produced zero changes in the last twenty instances, eliminate the approval gate as pure waste regardless of its historical rationale.
When This Fires
- During process audits or workflow optimization
- When a review step consistently adds delay without adding feedback
- After noticing that approval queues are a recurring bottleneck
- Any time someone says "we've always had this review step" without evidence it's catching anything
Common Failure Mode
Keeping the gate because of its origin story: "We added this after the incident in 2019." The incident was real, the gate was a reasonable response — but if the gate hasn't caught anything since, either the underlying cause was fixed by other means or the gate's design doesn't actually catch the problem. The origin story justifies the gate's existence emotionally, not functionally.
The Protocol
For each approval step in your process: (1) Track the last 20 instances. How many resulted in a change request from the reviewer? (2) If zero → eliminate the gate. Move the review to a sampling basis (spot-check 1 in 10) if you want a safety net. (3) If 1-3 → the gate has marginal value. Consider whether the changes it caught could be caught earlier in the process. (4) If 4+ → the gate is functional and earning its cost. Keep it.