Stop Fixing Symptoms, Start Fixing Systems
Why most “solutions” are just expensive bandages.
Most projects start with someone trying to fix a symptom. A delay. A missed handoff. A process that grinds to a halt every month like clockwork. Leadership calls a meeting, slaps together a task force, and declares, “We need to streamline this.” And maybe they do — but more often than not, they’re treating the wrong thing. They’re focused on the output, not the mechanism that created it.
You can’t fix an upstream problem by rearranging the downstream workflow. But that’s exactly what happens in most organizations. Someone identifies a visible pain point, builds a process around it, and calls it a win — at least until the same issue pops up somewhere else wearing a slightly different outfit. The team celebrates a temporary victory without realizing they’ve just shifted the pain, not solved it.
The truth is, most operational issues aren’t isolated. They’re symptoms of misalignment higher up the chain: unclear ownership, inconsistent data, conflicting priorities, or gaps between how leadership thinks the business runs and how it actually does. Fixing those issues requires patience, humility, and a willingness to ask uncomfortable questions — qualities that don’t always fit neatly into a project plan.
When people get frustrated with “process problems,” what they’re really feeling is system friction. It’s the resistance that builds up when multiple teams, tools, and expectations are slightly out of sync. You can smooth it over with automation or another layer of reporting, but that’s like painting over cracks in the foundation. Eventually, it all starts to buckle under the weight of its own inefficiency.
That’s why the best strategists think like mechanics, not magicians. They don’t just fix what’s visible — they trace the issue back to where the system first started slipping. They ask: When did this begin? Who owns the inputs? What’s feeding this process? And then they map the full lifecycle of the problem. Because once you understand how the system creates the symptom, you can design a fix that lasts.
Of course, that kind of work isn’t glamorous. It’s slow, detailed, and often uncomfortable. It means pulling apart workflows people are attached to, exposing hidden dependencies, and sometimes admitting that the thing everyone’s been protecting is actually the thing causing the problem. But that’s the difference between performative improvement and real progress.
Leaders often say they want to “move fast,” but speed without accuracy just means rework later. The organizations that actually move efficiently are the ones that slow down long enough to understand the problem before they start building the solution. They resist the reflex to “fix it now” and instead focus on designing systems that won’t need to be fixed again in six months.
Fixing symptoms feels productive. It gives you a quick win and something to announce in a status meeting. But fixing systems — that’s how you change the trajectory of a business. That’s how you stop firefighting and start building something sustainable.
Real strategy isn’t about adding more steps or prettier dashboards. It’s about seeing the invisible mechanics underneath the chaos and tightening the right bolts before the whole thing starts to shake apart. You can spend your time chasing symptoms, or you can redesign the system that keeps creating them. One keeps you busy. The other makes you better.
