Inertia will ruin your brand.
It may be time to bring in an extra set of eyes
tamara scott | april 27, 2026
Inertia, if you recall from science class, is the tendency for objects at rest to stay at rest, and objects in motion to stay in motion. When we see inertia in organizations, it’s usually the kind that slows the whole place down rather than the in-a-vacuum kind that results in ongoing revenue.
Negative organizational inertia happens when a company’s own processes begin to drag it down and hold it back. Usually these processes are long outdated—to the point that people don’t know why things are done that way anymore. They’re the things people shrug while also grumbling “ugh, I hate this” like:
-
That one spreadsheet that’s actually running the company
-
Lengthy approval processes that go all the way to the top
-
SEO structures from the mid-2010s that get flagged as spam today
-
Company messaging that no longer fits the brand
-
That logo that’s just a little bit off, but (normal) people can’t quite put their finger on why
Unfortunately, most organizations will see these problems (no, not challenges or opportunities—they’re problems and we need to call them that) and let them go because they don’t have time to fix them or change them. Until…
You hit a block and now you have to fix it
Inertia is interrupted either by a block (like a brick wall stops a car) or by friction like air particles, contact with the ground, brakes, whatever. Friction should be the signal for an organization that something's gone wrong, but most of them don’t do anything until they hit a block like
And once the company begins to feel that friction, everyone goes searching for answers. Or pointing fingers because
Now you’ve got a mess on your hands
Even worse? It’s now an emergency. An all-hands-on-deck moment. A fire drill. A brand new emerging priority that everyone should drop their everyday work for and fix. Cue the organizational upheaval, burnout, and knowledge drain.
Audiences and markets change, and it’s hard to come up for air when you’re in execution mode to see what’s different. Even marketing executives—whose job is to take the 10,000 foot view—can be blinded by internal biases, incremental messaging changes, and operational rules for problems that no longer exist.
But you can avoid the chaos
You need someone to help you step back from the day-to-day, see your own blind spots, suggest up-to-date fixes for current challenges, and help you overcome the inertia that slows you down.
At overQualified, we
-
Listen to your problem, your goals, and previous solutions
-
Ask questions about what is working, what doesn’t work, and gather opinions on why
-
Map systems—formally or informally—to understand roadblocks
-
Propose solutions that get you moving again
We’re not here to tell you you’re messing up, that you’re doing things all wrong, or that you need to fire your staff.
Instead, we want to support you and your team, validate the work you are doing, and suggest fixes that interrupt your inertia and get you to the place you want to go.
Let’s get on a call. We can find a solution together.
