Ep. 5: Stop Asking “What’s Taking So Long?”
Chelsy Bell Carpenter
Oct 5, 2026, 6:00:18 PM
Ep. 5: Stop Asking “What’s Taking So Long?”
8:17
Stop Asking “What’s Taking So Long?”
By Chelsy Bell Carpenter, VP of Business Development, Ampion Group.
Episode 5
When a claim is not moving, managers naturally want to know why.
That is part of the job.
Claims organizations are measured.
Cycle time matters.
Inventory matters.
Customer experience matters.
Closures matter.
So when a file sits, the instinctive question becomes:
“What’s taking so long?”
But after more than fifteen years in the insurance industry, I have come to believe there is a better question.
“What is keeping this claim from moving?”
Those two questions may sound almost identical. They create very different conversations.
One places pressure on the person.
The other investigates the problem.
And for middle managers overseeing adjusters, that distinction can be the difference between creating urgency and creating progress.
Not Every Stalled Claim Is a Performance Problem
There are absolutely times when a file is not moving because expectations have not been met.
Maybe follow-up did not happen.
Documentation is incomplete.
Tasks were not prioritized appropriately.
Accountability matters.
But not every aging claim is evidence of poor performance.
Sometimes the adjuster is working hard and the claim is still stuck.
That happens because claims are systems.
They involve people, policy, facts, experts, vendors, timelines, negotiations, documentation, and often competing interpretations.
A claim may stall because:
- there is disagreement around scope,
- an expert report created more questions than answers,
- the parties have fundamentally different interpretations of the facts,
- communication has broken down,
- the insured no longer trusts the process,
- authority is unclear,
- or the issue has moved beyond the expertise currently involved.
Those problems do not necessarily respond to more pressure.
They respond to better diagnosis.
Pressure Is Not the Same as Progress
Claims leaders are under pressure too.
That is important to acknowledge.
Managers sit between frontline adjusters and organizational expectations.
They are responsible for metrics while also supporting people.
They are often managing staffing shortages, escalations, reporting, meetings, training, customer concerns, and their own workload.
So when leadership asks why inventory is aging, it is understandable that pressure gets pushed downward.
"Get this closed."
"Move this."
"Follow up again."
But pressure alone does not resolve complexity.
Sometimes it actually makes the situation worse.
An already overloaded adjuster starts moving faster instead of thinking better.
They react instead of reflect.
They send another email when a conversation is needed.
They push for closure when more information is required.
They delay asking for another expert because they fear adding another step.
The file may become more active without becoming more resolved.
That is an important distinction.
Built to Last Principle: Move from Reactive to Proactive
One of the foundations of my Built to Last framework is moving out of constant reaction and into intentional action.
That principle applies directly to claims leadership.
Reactive management tends to show up after the problem is visible.
- A customer escalates.
- A claim reaches a certain age.
- A supervisor receives a complaint.
- Now everyone is focused on the file.
Proactive management looks earlier.
It asks:
- Where is this beginning to slow down?
- What pattern are we seeing?
- What dependency is holding the process up?
- Do we need expertise that is not currently involved?
- Is there an unresolved disagreement that will continue to grow if we do nothing?
This does not mean managers should micromanage every file.
It means they should develop an eye for friction.
Because friction that is identified early is usually easier to resolve than conflict that has been ignored.
Teach Your Team to Identify the Barrier
One of the most practical things a manager can do is teach adjusters how to name what is actually blocking a claim.
Instead of saying: "This claim is difficult."
Get more specific.
Is the barrier:
- information,
- authority,
- communication,
- expertise,
- expectation,
- or disagreement?
That simple exercise changes the problem.
If the barrier is information, gather it.If the barrier is authority, escalate appropriately.If the barrier is communication, change the conversation.If the barrier is expertise, bring someone in.If the barrier is expectation, reset it.If the barrier is disagreement, determine whether continued negotiation is productive or whether a more formal dispute resolution path is appropriate.
Once the barrier is named, the next action becomes much clearer.
Knowing When to Bring in an Expert Is a Leadership Skill
One of the most important responsibilities of a middle manager is recognizing when internal effort has reached diminishing returns.
There is a point where more emails, more internal reviews, and more discussion do not create meaningful progress.
The positions are clear.
The disagreement is real.
The technical issue requires specialized knowledge. Or the relationship between the parties has become too strained for the existing process to move
forward effectively.
That is when strong leaders widen the circle.
Outside expertise does not mean the team failed.
It means the problem requires a different tool.
This is especially important in dispute resolution.
Waiting until every relationship is damaged and every position is hardened can make resolution far more difficult.
Earlier intervention may preserve options, trust, and momentum.
The Burnout Cost of Unresolved Work
There is also a human cost to claims that stay stuck.
Open loops consume mental energy.
Most claims professionals know this feeling.
A difficult file follows you into the evening.You replay the conversation.You think about what the insured said.You worry about what will happen next.You open your laptop "just to check one thing."One unresolved claim can occupy far more cognitive space than five ordinary files.
Now multiply that by several complicated claims.
This is one reason claims burnout cannot be solved only by talking about workload volume.
Complexity matters.
Conflict matters.
Uncertainty matters. The manager who helps remove barriers is not simply improving cycle time.
They may also be freeing significant mental capacity for the adjuster.
That is operational leadership and burnout prevention happening at the same time.
Better Questions Create Better Teams
The language leaders use matters.
Compare:
"Why is this still open?"with:"What are you waiting on?"
or:
"What decision are you unable to make yet?"or:"What resource would move this forward?"
The first question can create defensiveness.
The others create curiosity.
Curiosity does not remove accountability.
It improves it.
Once the barrier is clear, expectations can become clear too.
Now the manager and adjuster can agree on the next step, who owns it, and when it should happen.
That is much more effective than simply adding pressure to an unclear situation.
A Better Leadership Question
The next time you see a claim that is not moving, resist the urge to immediately ask:
"What’s taking so long?"
Instead, ask:
“What is keeping this from moving?”
Then listen carefully.
The answer may be workload.
It may be performance.
It may be communication.
It may be missing information.
Or it may be a signal that the claim needs expertise your adjuster should not be expected to provide alone.
Great claims leaders do not simply push work forward.
They remove what is preventing forward movement.
That is how you protect customer experience.
That is how you support adjuster confidence.
And that is how you build an operation that can perform under pressure without living in permanent urgency.
That is Built to Last leadership.
And when the barrier is a dispute that needs a different kind of expertise, that is where organizations like Ampion can become an important extension of the claims team.
If that is a challenge your organization is navigating, I would welcome the conversation.