.jpeg)
Why Unplanned Work is Killing IT Teams (and How to Fix It)
Most IT teams aren’t struggling because they lack expertise—IT leaders aren’t struggling because of a lack of expertise. They're struggling because unplanned work hijacks 35-45% of their team’s time—leaving no room for execution on strategic goals.
Instead of focusing on innovation, optimization, and transformation, IT leaders find themselves constantly responding to last-minute requests, lingering incidents, and urgent tasks that weren’t planned for.
The Cost of IT Execution Failures (CISQ & ITPI Data):
- IT inefficiencies cost businesses $2 trillion annually.
- $1.5 trillion is lost due to operational failures.
- $260 billion is lost due to project failures.
- 42% of IT incidents remain open for 3+ days.
- 42% of IT projects fail completely.
- 55% of IT projects are over budget, late—and still fail to deliver.
This is not a capability problem—it’s a capacity problem. Most IT teams don’t need more headcount—they need to reclaim bandwidth from unplanned work and refocus on structured execution.
The Core Problem: IT Execution is Blocked by Unplanned Work
When unplanned work takes over IT teams' capacity, it creates a cascading effect:
❌ Ticket backlogs grow, increasing response times and frustrating end users.
❌ Recurring incidents don’t get root cause analysis, leading to repeated failures.
❌ IT leaders lose strategic influence, as their teams are viewed as reactive instead of proactive.
❌ Change success rates drop, causing disruptions, slow deployments, and rework.
The best IT organizations fix this differently. Instead of working harder, they restructure how IT executes—freeing up capacity and eliminating execution bottlenecks.
How High-Performing IT Teams Fix Unplanned Work
After studying IT teams that reduced chaos and scaled execution, we identified a repeatable 3-phase model that consistently delivers results:
- Phase 1: Stabilize Operations → Reduce unplanned work and enforce execution discipline.
- Phase 2: Enable Agility → Optimize workflows, eliminate recurring incidents, and increase execution speed.
- Phase 3: Earn Influence → Shift IT’s focus from reactive tasks to business-aligned priorities.
These teams didn’t add more people—they changed how they executed.
3 Steps to Reduce Unplanned Work & Free Up IT Capacity
- Reduce Recurring Incidents with RCA → High performers invest in Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to stop repeat failures permanently.
- Reorganize Workflows → Optimizing ticketing systems and execution processes leads to a 40% reduction in backlog within 12 weeks.
- Measure Change Success Rate (CSR) → Instead of just tracking uptime, they measure how efficiently IT delivers changes without disruptions.
When IT organizations shift their execution strategy, they:
- Reduce unplanned work below 10%
- Improve Change Success Rate to 99%+
- Cut ticket backlog by 40% in 12 weeks
Want the Full Execution Model?
We broke down exactly how high-performing IT teams eliminate unplanned work and free up capacity for strategic execution.
But the best IT teams don’t solve this by hiring more people. They solve it by restructuring execution—removing bottlenecks that drain IT capacity.
In the next article, we’ll break down exactly how IT leaders are reducing ticket backlogs by 40% in just 12 weeks—restoring execution bandwidth and regaining control.
How IT Leaders Can Reduce Ticket Backlogs by 40% in 12 Weeks
Why Unplanned Work is Killing IT Teams (and How to Fix It)
The Balance Blueprint: Regaining IT Execution Capacity & Reducing Unplanned Work
..png)