My three interesting things this month…
1. The unplanned work addiction finance teams need to break
Finance teams are usually very good in a crisis.
When work lands out of nowhere our instinct is to jump in and fix it. It can feel like exactly what finance is there to do: respond quickly and get people what they need.
Sometimes, that is absolutely the right thing to do.
But the problem starts when responding to everything becomes the default. At that point, everything starts to feel urgent even when it isn’t.
The work we don’t always count
When a board pack needs rebuilding, a forecast issue takes over two days, or a month-end problem pulls everyone off course, finance leaders remember it. The disruption is visible enough that people talk about what happened and what needs to change.
Smaller requests don’t always get the same attention though. On their own, these requests don’t look unreasonable and often feel like normal business partnering.
The reality is that the big fire drills and the small urgent tasks all belong in the same category: unplanned work.
And when finance leaders don’t look at them together, it becomes impossible to see how much capacity they’re taking from the team.
Why urgent work feels so useful
Unplanned work is hard to challenge because it looks productive.
There’s a clear request, a pressing deadline and someone who is grateful when finance gets it done. In a function where most work takes longer to show results, that immediate outcome looks a lot like progress.
But a quick request is never as quick as it looks. It pulls people out of deeper work and rewards the team for reacting – while the work that would prevent the issue keeps getting pushed back.
As a result, too much energy goes into avoidable urgency, and there’s less capacity to build the systems, habits and processes that would reduce it in the first place.
So how do you break the cycle?
A useful starting point is to stop treating each interruption as a one-off.
For a month, try measuring unplanned work as one category and ask:
- What work came in that wasn’t planned at the start of the week?
- Which ones were caused by poor planning, unclear ownership or a process that isn’t working?
- What important work got delayed as a result?
This gives you a better view of where the pressure is coming from, so you can start dealing with the cause.
Finance should respond when the business really needs help, but strong business partnering doesn’t mean absorbing every bit of poor planning around the business.
So next time the team is stretched, ask: “How much of this work was actually planned?”
Then ask the question that creates the change: “What are we going to do differently so there is less of it next month?”
Even just being aware of this as an issue can help. Trying to gradually increase the times to respond, push back a little harder on some of the less important requests, build a habit of finding a bit more space.
The question I always ask my clients: “If your CEO asked you to work on a special project for the next week, but you couldn’t tell anyone, what would you say to anyone who asked for your help?” The answer is usually: “I could think of something”.
Try applying more of this thinking and you should start to see more time coming back.
2) AI transformation won’t happen in the gaps between BAU
AI transformation needs protected time. It sounds obvious, but it’s one of the main reasons finance teams struggle to move AI from interest to impact.
It takes time to step back from a process, understand where the friction sits and decide how the work should run differently.
That’s hard to do properly in spare moments. People might find ways to make individual tasks faster, but the bigger questions need more attention.
Otherwise, AI gets layered onto the same process. The team gets a little faster, but the work itself doesn’t really change.
Create the transformation bubble
The best way to make real progress is to create an AI transformation bubble.
By that, I mean a defined sprint or period of time where the team is protected from BAU as much as possible, so they can focus on redesigning finance processes properly.
Here are a few ways to make the bubble real.
1) Use an offsite to get out of the normal rhythm
An offsite can help teams step away from the normal pace of finance and look at one process properly.
When people are in the same office, on the same calendar, with the same inbox pressure, it’s hard to think differently about how work should run.
Getting out of that environment creates focus. It gives the team permission to challenge the current process properly and make decisions without being pulled back into every small request.
2) Run a Kanban-style transformation sprint
Set up a visible board with the work that needs to happen: map the current process, list pain points, test AI options, design the future workflow, agree controls, build the template, test the output, embed the change.
Then move the work through the board with a simple rule: this sprint is for transformation, not BAU. That gives the team focus, momentum and accountability for leaving with something usable.
3) Be honest about what BAU really means
Before the sprint starts, leaders need to be clear about what work actually has to continue. Ask:
- What absolutely has to continue during the sprint?
- What can pause?
- What can be simplified?
- What can move to someone else?
- What is habitual rather than genuinely necessary?
That last question is usually the most useful one. A lot of capacity is tied up in work that once had a purpose, but now continues because nobody has stopped to challenge it.
4) Remove the one-off complexity
If the people who understand the process are the people you need to redesign it, their time has to be protected.
That might mean moving a deadline, reducing attendance at standing meetings, getting temporary support, or outsourcing a one-off piece of analysis during the sprint.
This won’t always be possible. Finance will never have a perfect window where nothing else is happening.
But your goal is to remove just enough noise for the team to do the work properly.
Make the change stick
The final step is to make sure the new way of working survives BAU. Before a sprint ends, agree on what’s changing, why and when.
Otherwise the team goes back to the old way of working and the sprint becomes another experiment.
AI transformation only happens when leaders create the space to redesign the work, protect the people doing it and make the new way of working stick.
3. Data → Emotion → Action: the CFO influence model finance teams miss
Finance professionals usually believe the best data should win. If the analysis is strong enough, the answer should be obvious. If the numbers are clear enough, the business should make the right decision. Logic will prevail!
In reality, senior decisions are rarely driven by logic alone. People act when they understand the story, connect emotionally with why it matters, and feel compelled with what needs to happen next.
That’s why emotion matters in how we communicate. Without it, even good analysis can be understood in the room and forgotten by the time people leave it.
So instead of starting with the data and hoping it leads to the right decision, finance leaders need to work backwards.
Start with the action
Before building the story, get clear on what you need the room to do.
Do you need them to approve the investment? Stop the project? Revisit the forecast? Reduce spend? Back the pricing change?
A simple test is: What do we want people to do differently after seeing this?
If the answer is unclear, you’re not ready for the conversation.
Identify the emotion
Once the action is clear, ask yourself what emotion the room needs to feel to take that action.
Emotion is what turns understanding into action. People can understand the numbers and still do nothing with them, if the message doesn’t feel important enough.
Without diving too deep into philosophy, Aristotle’s three pillars of persuasion are useful here:
- Ethos: credibility
- Logos: logic
- Pathos: emotion
Finance is strong on ethos and logos. We build credibility through accuracy, control and commercial understanding and bring logic through analysis, modelling and evidence.
The missing piece is almost always pathos. Tying numbers to feelings of urgency, confidence, concern or ambition gives people a reason to act, rather than another number to remember.
Choose the data that creates the response
Once you know the action and the emotion, choosing the right data becomes much easier.
Instead of presenting every number available, you’re choosing the data that moves the conversation towards a decision. For example:
- Leading with the trend that shows why waiting is expensive
- Showing the evidence that reduces fear around an investment
- Highlighting the opportunity cost of spreading resources too thinly
If a chart, table or metric doesn’t help your message, it probably doesn’t need to lead the story.
Make the message memorable
Good finance communication helps people understand what matters, why it matters now and what needs to happen next.
The data gives the message credibility. The emotion makes it memorable. The action gives it direction.
So next time you’re preparing a board paper, forecast review or investment case, try working backwards. This is how finance moves beyond explaining the numbers and starts influencing the decision.
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