Issues Don't Resolve Themselves—People Do

Every issue represents a decision to be made, work to be done, or a blocker to be removed. When an issue sits unresolved for 60 days, that's not a technical problem—it's a people problem. Maybe nobody has authority to decide, the owner is overloaded, there's unaddressed stakeholder conflict, or executives haven't prioritized it.

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Accountability Through Transparency

Single-person ownership is essential—when everyone is responsible, nobody is. That one person is accountable for moving the issue forward, even if they're not personally fixing it.

Transparency amplifies accountability. When dashboards show Sarah has 23 open issues with 8 over 30 days, it creates visible accountability. She knows everyone can see it, which creates healthy pressure to resolve, escalate, or ask for help.

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Monitor Outcomes, Not Activities

The balance is monitoring patterns and outcomes, not micromanaging. Watch for signals like one person consistently having the oldest issues (needs support), one module having disproportionate issues (design problem), or critical issues not being prioritized (triage process failing).

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Culture Determines Success

Transparency only works with the right culture. If leadership punishes people for having issues, teams will game the system—closing issues prematurely or not logging them at all. If leadership uses dashboards to identify where people need support and celebrate resolution, transparency becomes powerful.

Psychological safety is critical—teams must trust that logging issues early is valued, not punished. Hiding problems should be unacceptable; having them should not.

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Decisions Are the Real Bottleneck

Most stuck issues aren't awaiting technical work—they're waiting for decisions. Should we customize or change the process? Do we have budget? Which requirement takes priority?

This requires decision-makers engaged in triage meetings, clear escalation to people with authority, and documented decisions that stick unless circumstances materially change.

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The PM as Orchestrator

Project managers use dashboards to see where people are stuck, then actively work to unstick them—facilitating decisions, reallocating resources, breaking down silos, and escalating when needed. They're not administrators; they're orchestrators ensuring people have ownership, accountability, authority, resources, and safety to raise problems early.

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The Bottom Line

Issues are just the work. The real work is people management—ensuring clear ownership, accountability through transparency, empowerment to act, effective escalation, cross-boundary collaboration, and psychological safety. The software just makes people dynamics visible and creates structure. Without engaged people making decisions and taking action, even the best tracking system is just an expensive list of unresolved problems.

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