Episode 86: Work Arounds for Work Arounds

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Workarounds can keep things moving—but stack enough of them, and you’re not solving problems, you’re covering them up. In this episode of The Workplace Chameleon, Dr. Celina Peerman digs into the hidden cost of “bandages on bandages” at work: the quick fixes we layer on top of each other instead of addressing the real issue.

From adding staff to a broken process, to offering bonuses for turnover, or handing out coupons for service failures, Dr. Celina explores how workarounds might feel like progress but often block lasting change.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the Workplace Chameleon.
This is Dr Selina, and here weexplore the twists and the turns
of leadership, learning and theever-changing world of work
Around.
Here we believe that leadershipisn't about perfection, nor

(00:30):
will it ever be perfect, butit's possible and always a work
in progress.
Today we're going to focus,prioritize and continue to lead
with intention, even when theworkplace feels a little wild.
Let's dive in.

(00:52):
I find often within companies,because we're busy, because the
pressures are on, we haveworkarounds for our workarounds,
we have Band-Aids on ourband-aids and they often stop
the bleeding for now but theyreally never heal the wound.

(01:15):
I was with an organization, aclient of mine, over the years
and recently they were doing amajor overhaul on their computer
software system and it had beenaround so long and was so
needed to do thisenterprise-wide upgrade and the

(01:43):
conversation we were having wasfocused on the fact that because
the system didn't do what itneeded to be doing to run the
business for so long that theyreally had workarounds on their
workarounds, and I asked them tojust put a sticky note next to
their workstation that when thenews system went live, I wanted
them to note on that sticky notefor me to bring back to our

(02:04):
conversation.
When I saw them a few weekslater, how long after the new
system went live were youtempted to say, oh, this just
doesn't work the way I need itto work and I'm going to create
my own spreadsheet, or I don'ttrust the system so I'm just
going to start a side database,a workaround, because the system

(02:27):
or the process was not yetmature, refined, updated or with
a new system.
It's still a work in progress.
So I asked them just to trackthat for me.
When I went back a few weekslater, I said so, tell me about
your sticky note.
How many of you did it?
A number of them had, and Isaid I want to know how long

(02:52):
before you were tempted in thisbrand new system you've put all
this effort into doing andupgrading to.
Before you didn't trust thesystem.
Hours, days, weeks, what was it?
20 minutes From go live to turnon your computer to get into
the system, even though they'vebeen working in their sandbox,

(03:14):
their pseudo system, this lastmonth to practice things and run
reports After go live within 20minutes they're like fine, see,
told you this wouldn't work,I'm just going to do my own
thing.
Oh, so many times I see this.
So today we're calling out theBand-Aids on the Band-Aids.

(03:35):
We want to figure out how tobreak this cycle because when we
focus, it clears the clutterand priorities stop the spin.
And I want us to really diginto why do leaders keep adding
Band-Aids?
Now, I know there are somebusiness cases out there.
We can't do the thing right now, we can't make the change, it's

(03:58):
not a business priority.
However, in my story, here'swhat we know that in that 20
minutes they were already sayingto themselves well, see, told
you this wasn't going to work,but if we don't feed that back

(04:20):
to the project team that'slaunching this, they can't make
the improvements.
Someone also said to me see,the new system doesn't work like
the old system.
I'm like, yeah, but if the newsystem worked like the old
system, we wouldn't need the newsystem.
So many times we add theworkarounds and the band-aids

(04:44):
for good intentions like I justneed to take care of this and
this is what I need to do rightnow and I don't have time to
stop or it's never worked wellfrom the beginning.
Fast fixes actually make usfeel productive, but it avoids
the harder work.

(05:04):
Make us feel productive, but itavoids the harder work.
We give something temporaryinstead of addressing why so we
give a bump in pay or a bonusinstead of addressing why people
want to leave.
We do something to get usthrough the day or the shift,
but we never quite find the timeto go back and fix it at its

(05:25):
root.
Now, many of you have greatprocesses in place to find the
root cause, to solve the coreissue, but often when there are
resource constraints like wedon't have the time those
band-aids come out.
Or complexity.
This is what I'm seeing moreand more.
Leaders avoid complexity bylayering easy solutions because

(05:50):
we're tired or we're busy orthere's too many things.
I also think about riskaversion.
There's a smaller cost to justdoing a workaround now instead
of bigger cost of solving a rootcause.
Or maybe it's safer, or maybewe don't risk a potential client

(06:11):
or a current customer Becausefamiliar bandages, familiar
workarounds feel safer than bold, not root cause solutions than
bold root cause solutions.
I often, within my work as anorganizational psychologist, am
looking at why does behaviorhappen?

(06:33):
And we also see these types ofbehaviors come out because the
culture told us Organizationsget comfortable in survival mode
, not growth mode.
And it's really the challengeof leadership to say whoa, whoa,
whoa.
We got to make the businesscase here, to go to root cause

(06:54):
on this, because survival modeis not a long-term solution.
Consider this Are you solvingfor comfort or for clarity?
Let's take a moment to considerreal-world bandages versus root

(07:16):
causes.
In our book 39 Squirrels, Ioffer you a one-minute reset
times 39.
And I want to insert one intothis podcast because I think it
may help in the topic and theseare the moments where we just

(07:37):
get to focus in for a moment.
So my one-minute reset I wantyou to consider is pause right
now.
Name one reoccurring workplaceheadache.
Okay, it can't be a person.
Let's go with a process, asituation.
Are you solving it orsidestepping it?

(08:02):
Now, it could be a person, butthat might take an entirely
different conversation for us towork on.
But certainly employee turnover,customer complaints, systems
failures, supply chain gaps,like there are a lot of
recurring workplace headachesthat keep happening, big and

(08:25):
small, and sometimes we're justtrying to get through the day
and we're not solving what wereally need to solve.
You know, with employeeturnover, we may be putting some
Band-Aids on it like well, itwas them, not us, right.
Or we try to make someadjustments, but we're really at
a root cause of culture andleadership gaps.

(08:46):
Customer complaints maybe wegive them a discount when really
it was a poor service orproduct issue.
Maybe a system failure ofmachinery was.
We just spent more onmaintenance and parts instead of
an outdated technology issue.
Hearts instead of an outdatedtechnology issue.

(09:09):
Sometimes, with supply gaps, Isee we try to bring in backup
vendors, but really the corepiece is we don't have a risk
plan.
Now, those are some generalcategories and you know your
work best.
But where do the workaroundsshow up?
When did these happen most inyour world?
And consider are we layeringthose bandages?
Are we actually fixing thewound?

(09:30):
I want to frame this a littlebit different for your
consideration today.
Think about how workaroundsactually block change.
Workarounds I see it are changeblockers.
They feel like progress butthey actually stop us from

(09:53):
getting better the impact.
Short-term wins kill long-termchange.
Bandages drain resources andavoiding root causes creates
resistance.
What's one bandage you'veapplied lately?

(10:14):
What change would happen if youdug deeper instead?
Just consider this for anothermoment with me, because when we
keep doing workarounds on ourworkarounds, on our workarounds,
we're really avoiding somefundamental change that needs to

(10:35):
happen.
So we need to break the bandagecycle.
Break that workaround of myworkaround of my workaround.
So stop chasing all the shinyfixes and focus forward.
Number one I want you to spotthe patterns.
Notice what keeps breaking.

(10:57):
Where are those spots where youjust keep making do?
Number two there are a ton ofroot cause tools out there.
If you need some help locatingthem, you reach out to us.
We'll put you in touch.
But within your organizationsyou likely have some tools
around five whys and fishbonediagrams and other types of

(11:20):
quality methodology tools.
Quality methodology tools andthe reason we use those tools is
it helps us name it outside ofour brain in a group, visualize
it and we solve the problembetter.
These are incomplete, thoughwithout step number three.
Number one was spot thepatterns.
Number two was do some rootcause analysis.

(11:42):
Number three you have to makeyour business case.
Part of our responsibility asprofessionals in our field is to
make the argument so others seewhy the change matters.
If you were presenting that onShark Tank, if you're not
familiar with the program, lookit up, where entrepreneurs of

(12:05):
the latest product that they'retrying to get funded present to
the sharks, the key people whohold venture capital in order to
fund them.
But you have to make your case.
Sometimes I hear inorganizations where they're not
going to change their it's,that's not where they're going

(12:25):
to put the priorities or themoney right now.
You have to make the argument.
You can't just say, oh, I needthis, why do you need it?
What's the data say, what'syour evidence?
What will the cost be to dothis?
But what and here's my favoritepart what will be the cost not

(12:47):
to do this?
Underline that one, like, writeit down.
What is the cost to do this?
What is the cost not to do this?
Number four you need to equipyour team.
Give them the tools, the time,the support to make the fix.
Yes, you might have to slowdown to go fast, but that pause
helps you fix it so you don'thave to stop again later.

(13:10):
And I will always tie this backto creating a learning culture,
reinforcing and modeling thatmistakes are not failures,
they're lessons.
And when we do workarounds,they are lessons, additional
ones that you may try.

(13:30):
We've mentioned some root causeswhere you can find that
recurring pain point and godeeper.
You can look for thosesolutions by asking what
bandages are we currently using?
Or asking use it as an after,so maybe a project goes well.
Assess, is there anything wedidn't do as well as we wanted

(13:55):
to to get the project done?
How can we document that forthe future?
Because sometimes bandages justhappen in order to get
something launched or off theground and then we go on to all
the next busy stuff and weforget we even used that bandage
on that last one, just to makedo until it breaks.

(14:18):
Consider today Name one problemyou have fixed too many times.
Ask yourself what temporarysolutions have I stacked on top?
What am I avoiding?
And what's one action I cantake this week with others
toward a root cause, because weneed to identify recurring

(14:41):
problems.
List those band-aids, solve forroot cause, make a long-term
fixed plan.
No-transcript, stop patching,start fixing the strongest teams

(15:20):
, build resilience.
Consider how you'll take today,this moment hanging out with me
, and apply a new lens, a newset of questions to whatever it
is you need to tackle today.
Thanks for spending time withme here at the Workplace
Chameleon.
If today's episode gave yousomething to think about or

(15:43):
something to try, share the linkwith your boss or fellow leader
and remember leadership islearned every single day.
Keep asking questions.
Keep showing up as always.
Smash some mental healthstigmas today and learn

(16:03):
something new that will help youtackle whatever you need to do
next.
Thanks for tuning in and we'llsee you again soon.