For years, I chased the perfect process. Sometimes I still do. And I watch many of the leaders I work with do the same. The result?
More frustration, not fewer problems.
There’s a fantastically simple Haitian proverb I recently read. “Beyond the mountains? More mountains”.
We can’t assume that there’s a system, or a leadership team, or an external consultant who will end our problems.
Instinctively, we all know that’s true.
Yet, and I find this truest amongst founders & CEOs, we keep getting frustrated when (not if) more problems come up. If the new system or process hasn’t resulted in a problem-free business, we assume something’s gone wrong.
While in reality, everything is just normal, and life is just being life. We’ll never eliminate problems.
This is probably one of the biggest disconnects I’ve seen between what we know and how we behave.
Because when we behave as though some magic system, process or person _should_ eliminate problems, there are 2 outcomes:
It _guarantees_ we’ll always be in a state of frustration because some of the problems will always persist, and some new ones will always crop up.
It ensures we create more problems by getting into a cycle of changing the system, process or person on the basis of impossible expectations.
Don’t get me wrong – there are oftentimes when the process or system or human isn’t a fit. But if we set the bar at “there’s a problem”, and get frustrated as soon as there is a problem, then maybe the issue’s not them.
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