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What is a shitcut? The "Shitcut": When Speed Kills Quality is a new term from James Hardie: the sh*tcut. While a shortcut is a disciplined way to save time while protecting quality, a shitcut is moving faster by skipping the essential thinking and checks. We discuss why businesses fall into this trap and how to use the C Method (Clarity, Checks, and Consequences) plus Courage to avoid it. Most organisations do not fail from laziness, they fail from compressed time, noise, and social pressure. Shortcuts are inevitable and useful, process is improved. The question is whether they are designed or drifted into. Tversky and Kahneman showed how fast judgements reliably misfire in patterned ways, especially under uncertainty.
This article was also featured in a discussion on the Management Podcast 'Truth, Lies and Work'. What is a shitcut? The "Shitcut" occurs when Speed Kills Quality, and is a new term to explain some well known psychology at work. While a shortcut is a disciplined way to save time while protecting quality, a shitcut is moving faster by skipping the essential thinking and checks. We discuss why businesses fall into this trap and how to use the C Method (Clarity, Checks, and Consequences) plus Courage to avoid it. Most organisations do not fail from laziness, they fail from compressed time, noise, and social pressure. Shortcuts are inevitable and useful, process is improved. The question is whether they are designed or drifted into. Tversky and Kahneman showed how fast judgements reliably misfire in patterned ways, especially under uncertainty. The shitcut leads to that moment where you might say, "Oh shit!"
Everyone loves a shortcut, but they do not always turn out so well. In reality a good shortcut is a disciplined reduction of effort that preserves intent, evidence, and safety. On the other hand, a shitcut is speed bought by skipping thinking, checks, or accountability and may lead to an "Oh sh*t!" moment
Playbook (3–5 steps):
Definition: Heuristics are mental shortcuts used to make fast judgements under uncertainty. (Science)
Data point: A review across management, finance, medicine and law found overconfidence is the most recurrent cognitive bias affecting professional decisions. (PubMed)
Featured discussion on Truth, Lies and Work podcast episode 292, https://truthliesandwork.com/episodes/292-is-your-a-i-getting-token-anxiety-plus-sh-tcuts-sweden-s-empty-offices-and-the-truth-about-vulnerable-leadership-with-live-work-more-human-podcast-hosts-alexis-zahner-and-sally-clarke
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Most organisations do not fail from laziness, they fail from compressed time, noise, and social pressure. Shortcuts are inevitable and useful, process is improved. The question is whether they are designed or drifted into. Tversky and Kahneman showed how fast judgements reliably misfire in patterned ways, especially under uncertainty. (Science)
Shortcuts are going to be part of your process management and deserve attention and careful planning so Explore them, which may mean learning and development, skill acquisition, more resources.. It is also important to make sure they do not contradict existing culture and behaviour too much, unless you are deliberately changing things round here, so find Aligment and avoid dissonance. Support the people and the process as the shortcut becomes routine, and be prepared to adapt and manage the context when this is a acceptable alternative behaviour. Then you can Empower your team with decision rights and trust to get te job done better. However, great shortcuts may mean more work at the outset to speed up capability in the long term.
Use the 3C test (Clarity, Checks, Consequences), codify what works into checklists and templates, add kill switches for high stakes moments, and debrief to refine.
You may be wise to treat every shortcut like an engineering change request: assumption, test, gate, owner, review date. That is how you get speed through discipline, not speed through denial.
It is well worth understanding the Cynefin Framework https://thecynefin.co/about-us/about-cynefin-framework/ too, where any disruption or Disorder emerges into one of four domains. Sometimes, preferred styles of response may be inappropriate for the domain.
Chaotic Domain: Immediate action is often necessary, relevant in crisis scenarios. It can be hard to pause and understand.
Complex Domain: Needs experimental approaches, aligning with the genesis and custom-built stages.
Complicated Domain: Requires expert analysis, aligning with the early and late majority stages.
Clear Domain: Best practices apply, corresponding to the later stages where the technology is well-understood. Most of the shortcuts have already been created
These stages may help organisations understand the maturity of their components and plan strategic actions.
How do I tell if we are moving fast or just getting sloppy? Track rework, reversals, incidents, and “silent fixes”. If speed rises but these rise too, you are buying pace with fragility.
Where do sh*tcuts usually start? Handoffs, onboarding, and “quick deals”. Anywhere responsibility is blurred and feedback is delayed. You may hear people saying, "Yeah but..." more often than normal.
How do I stop this without becoming bureaucratic? Make fewer and more important rules, sharper gates. One-page checklists beat long policies.
What is the fastest fix this week? Introduce a kill switch: “If X, we slow down and consult.” Then enforce it twice. People learn by consequence.
How does EASE fit? Explore the real constraints, Align intent and thresholds, Support with tools and training, Empower with clear decision rights.
Other articles on this, “How do I scale a business without burning out?” because burnout is where sh*tcuts multiply. (coursecorrection.co.uk)
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