All too often we focus on a single problem and make statements as if solving this one thing will solve everything. While that one thing might certainly make things better, it’s never the only answer. Everything we do is within the context of a complex adaptive system and changing any one thing will have ripple effects everywhere else in the system.
For example, we talk a lot about optimizing for flow in a system and flow is certainly a problem in most places. We should almost certainly improve our flow and yet delivering the wrong thing in an optimized flow is still delivering the wrong thing, so flow by itself isn’t enough.
Building the right thing is clearly important but if we burn out our team as we’re delivering that then we’ve lost any future capacity we might have had. So building the right thing, by itself, isn’t enough.
Working at a sustainable pace is clearly important but if we can’t deliver value when the customer needs it then why were we even doing it? A sustainable pace by itself, isn’t enough.
Everything we do will have ripple effects throughout the entire system. As we improve one thing, we need to be aware that we’ve also changed other things in the system. Some of those might also now be better and some of those may be worse. The point is that they’re almost certainly different.
If you find yourself thinking “we just need to fix this one thing” then be aware that this is an illusion. As soon as we’ve fixed that one, something else will change and we’ll need to adjust again. There isn’t a single, right, answer for anything but the simplest problems.