When fixing a problem is not a good idea

Published: Thu, 11/20/25

Updated: Thu, 11/20/25

When fixing a problem is not a good idea

When we are confronted with a problem, our knee-jerk reaction is to fix it. I’m not talking about common day-to-day problems – a faucet begins to leak, we run out of milk, etc.—but rather significant business and career issues. These are problems that have a significant impact on our businesses or our careers. So, for example, our basic software system keeps crashing, we lose a key employee, a key vendor closes their doors, or our boss is replaced with someone who rubs us the wrong way.

In each of these and similar problems, our instinctual reaction is to fix it. In other words, to restore the status quo – to return the situation to a state as close to what it was previously as possible. So, if a key employee leaves, we immediately seek to replace him/her.

           But what if there were a more effective approach to the situation? Suppose we looked at every problem/objecive as an opportunity to put somethng better in place?

           To simply replace a person, a policy, proceeedure or bit of hardware or software that was acquired years ago may have been OK some time ago, but today it represents an opportunity to make a strategic improvement.

           Our world today is changing faster than at any time in human history. If we are going to be successful in this new environment, we need to take on some new attitudes, new skills, and a mindset that says to maintain the status que is to fall behind. Every crises, every significant problem and every major maintance action is an opportunity to create a more powerful, strategically motivated outcome – something I call a “Leap Forward’.

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           A leap forward is an action that looks to the future and attempts to put in place a more strategically-designed replacement. It identifies an initative that not only solves the problem but puts something better in place, equipping us to deal with a changing environment and preparing us for future success.

           So, for example, instead of just replacing a piece of software, maybe we should realign the way we use computers. Instead of replacing a key employee, maybe we should look at the responsibilities that person formerly had, compare them to the future, and create a way to handle the future more effectively. Instead of just resigning ourselves to the same old way of relating to our boss, maybe we should question the relationship between ourselves and our managers.

Remember, every crises, every significant problem and every major maintenance action is an opportunity to create a more powerful, strategically motivated outcome.

           The key is to think a layer or two deeper about the problem and the objective that drives our action. We do that by asking the question “Why” a couple of times.

           So, let’s say we lose a key manager. The knee jerk reaction is to replace him/her and return the situation to the status quo. Our objective, then, is to “Replace the person with someone new.” But, suppose we stop and ask, “Why do we need to replace him/her?” We think, “Because someone needs to do that job.”

           And we ask the question “Why do we need... READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

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