Some problems are intricate. They demand deep thinking, custom strategies, and tailored interventions.
Others? They just need a firehose.
The key is knowing which is which.
Look for problems where the 80/20 rule applies—where 80% of the pain comes from just 20% of the causes. These are high-leverage problems, and they don’t need micromanagement. They need a broad-spectrum fix—one that can be applied everywhere at once for maximum impact with minimal effort.
Think of it like this:
- A factory has hundreds of defects per day. A closer look reveals that just one machine, responsible for 20% of production, causes most of them. Fix the machine. Defects plummet.
- A customer support team is drowning in tickets. But half of them are basic how-to questions that a simple FAQ or chatbot could handle. Deploy it. The workload drops overnight.
- A business struggles with late payments. But a quick analysis shows that most delays come from a handful of repeat offenders. Automate reminders. Introduce small penalties. Watch on-time payments rise.
In all these cases, the solution isn’t delicate. It doesn’t require endless strategy meetings, complex workflows, or expensive consultants. It just needs to be sprayed everywhere—like a broad-spectrum pesticide wiping out the root cause in one sweep.
The best solutions don’t always require precision.
Find the leverage points.
Apply the simplest, most scalable fix.
Let the system do the work.