Every business has them: the printer that only works if you restart it twice, the spreadsheet that must be manually corrected each week, or the customer enquiry that gets forwarded through three people before reaching the person who can answer it.
The solution may be simple, yet the problem continues for months—or even years.
Why?
Usually, it is because the problem is annoying but not quite painful enough. It wastes five minutes here and ten minutes there, but it does not bring the business to a halt. We grumble, find a workaround and get on with the day.
Over time, the workaround becomes part of the job.
Someone keeps a note beside the printer explaining how to coax it into working. An employee creates a second spreadsheet to fix the first one. Everyone learns that Sarah is the person who knows where a particular document is hidden.
The business adapts to the problem instead of solving it.
Familiar problems can also feel easier than unfamiliar solutions. Replacing a system, changing a process or buying a new piece of equipment requires a decision. It may involve research, cost and the possibility that the new solution will not work as expected.
By comparison, the existing irritation is predictable. We know how bad it is and we know how to manage it.
There is also the problem of ownership. When everyone is affected, nobody necessarily feels responsible. Each person assumes someone else will eventually deal with it. Managers may not even know how much frustration the problem causes because employees have become so efficient at working around it.
The true cost is therefore hidden.
Ten minutes wasted each day does not sound serious. But if five employees lose ten minutes every working day, that is more than 200 hours a year. Add the irritation, interruptions and occasional mistakes, and a supposedly minor problem may be surprisingly expensive.
Simple problems often survive because we assess them one incident at a time. We see today’s five-minute delay rather than the accumulated cost of hundreds of delays.
A useful habit is to keep an “annoyance list.” Whenever something causes repeated frustration, write it down. Once a month, review the list with your team and ask three questions:
Is this happening repeatedly? What is it costing us? Could we fix it quickly?
Not every irritation deserves a major project. But many do not require one. Sometimes the answer is a better template, a small software change, a clearer responsibility or a $200 purchase that saves thousands of dollars in wasted time.
The important thing is to stop treating repeated annoyance as a normal part of work.
If a problem keeps returning, the workaround is not really working. The next time you hear someone say, “That’s just how we do it,” take a closer look.
You may have found one of the simplest opportunities to make your business better.
Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash