A handoff should carry the decision with it
A handoff is supposed to move work forward. One person finishes their part, the next person picks it up, and the task keeps moving. But a lot of handoffs only transfer the assignment. They do not transfer the actual state.
That is where work starts to drag. The next owner gets the task but not the latest decision. The file moved, but the comments stayed in another thread. The review happened, but the outcome is buried in chat. The work technically changed hands, but the next person still has to ask what was approved, what changed, and what they are supposed to do now.
That is not a clean transfer. It is just another form of context loss.
Good operations make the decision travel with the work. If the latest version matters, it should be attached. If a call was already made, it should be visible. If there is still one open issue, that should be obvious before the next owner starts.
A handoff is complete when the next person can move without reconstructing the last step. If they still have to go hunting for the decision, the transfer is not done yet.
