In a recent LinkedIn post, Callum Laing discusses how businesses can lose sight of the client outcomes they exist to deliver as teams focus on internal processes and metrics. This article covers Laing’s argument in that post; it is journalistic reporting, not an article written by Laing.
“It’s the results, not the process, that matters!”
When department targets pull teams off course
Laing describes a company as an organization built to solve a problem for its clients. Marketing, sales, operations and customer service may each play a role in delivering that solution, with finance and human resources supporting the work. As a company grows, he observes, departments set targets and employees try to meet them efficiently.
The risk, according to Laing, is that a useful process can become an end in itself. A marketing team may pursue engagement instead of helping users understand an offering; sales may prioritize closing a deal over listening to a client; and operations may favor internal efficiency over the outcome the client needs. Customer service, he adds, can end up measuring call length instead of satisfaction.
Metrics can obscure the original purpose
Laing argues that these shifts happen gradually. Each team may be pursuing a measurable goal in good faith, yet the combined effect can be a company whose departments are no longer aligned around the problem it set out to solve. His post presents this as a broader human tendency, rather than a problem confined to one industry.
“Along the way, everyone loses sight of why they are there in the first place.”
He connects the pattern to sectors beyond business, including politics and education. Laing recounts speaking with a man who was leaving the nonprofit sector after five years, despite caring about its cause, because he felt results had become secondary to process. The example illustrates the personal cost he associates with systems that reward procedure over impact.
A pause to reconsider priorities
Laing’s proposed response is to step back and ask what the work is meant to achieve. Rather than reject processes or measurement altogether, his post urges readers to check whether those mechanisms still serve the underlying purpose. That question applies at both the organizational and individual level: teams can examine what their metrics encourage, while people can revisit why they chose their work.
“Why are you actually doing what you’re doing?”
He closes by turning the question toward the reader’s presence on LinkedIn, then adds a lightly promotional invitation to connect and receive resources. The ending ties the post’s theme to the platform itself: even routine activity, in Laing’s framing, can prompt a check on whether people are spending their attention toward a meaningful result.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Callum Laing on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on November 4, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →