The Bottleneck Podcast Clarke Ching with Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba on bottlenecks, leadership and progress
36 snips
Jan 13, 2026 
Clarke Ching, author and consultant on bottlenecks, joins Rory Sutherland and Elfried Samba to explore the unseen hurdles to progress. They discuss how leaders can unintentionally become constraints and the importance of re-routing work away from bottlenecks. Clarke shares insights on the psychological aspects of systems thinking and the necessity of a shift from scarcity to abundance. The trio also highlights creative solutions and the critical need for a detective mindset in identifying and resolving these hidden challenges for effective leadership.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Vindicated For Suggesting Time‑Shifted Energy Use
- Rory was dismissed by an engineer when suggesting time‑shifting energy demand.
- Years later companies like Octopus Energy proved the behavioural shift idea valuable for grid smoothing.
Reframe Purpose To Rewire Systems
- The highest leverage system interventions change what people believe the system is for.
- Reframing purpose (not just metrics) unlocks different decisions and solutions.
Find The Queue And Walk Backwards
- Start bottleneck detection by looking for visible queues and piles of work.
- Walk the flow from finished goods backwards until you find the slowest resource holding work up.
