First, do no harm

First, do no harm.

The instinct to act is often the problem.

This isn’t about medicine. It’s about business and the tactical pause.

It is true that certain levels of chaos warrant an immediate decision (the military adage, “Any decision is better than no decision,” comes to mind). But chaos is a relative term. If a nearby tree is falling, do you immediately run or first check which way it’s falling?

Now look at this through a systems lens in business. Very rarely should “any decision” override a tactical pause. Something happened…or didn’t. So we must quickly do something, right? But why? Why act for the sake of acting? What is driving this? Fear? Of what? Do action and busyness equate to problem solving? Maybe—but not by default. It is possible to be very busy doing nothing of value (or doing something of lesser value).

I’ve written before on the value of targeting root problems. The mangled arm of a car crash victim can distract you from the unseen closed head injury that’s actually killing them. We can’t waste time generating momentum in the wrong direction. Tunnel vision kills the car crash patient. And a business will hemorrhage resources (not just money but time, energy, motivation, morale) by scrambling to do something, anything.

Which way is the tree falling?