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Fix the model before the fire
When it finally worked, some entrepreneurs could take away the lesson that their own crazy thing might work too. Instacart's former president took away a different lesson: he wishes the business model had been wired earlier. The company tried, but it was a hard problem to solve. Instead it waited for crisis moments to fix a bunch of things and get the house in order.
Fixing things only when something was on fire, when there was an easier way, is extremely taxing, and the cost shows up in culture. He was there eight years, and the next longest tenured executive team member was there three or three and a half years. It wasn't a place that lent itself to longevity and long-term relationships with your peers.
Why do teams stay stuck firefighting?
Researchers Nelson Repenning and John Sterman described a capability trap in a 2002 paper in Administrative Science Quarterly. When people spend their time fixing urgent problems, they have less time to improve the process that produces them. The problems then recur, which demands still more firefighting. They built a simulation model to show how this loop forms.
How does chronic stress at work become burnout?
In 2019 the World Health Organization included burnout in its International Classification of Diseases and described it as an occupational phenomenon. It defined burnout by three features: exhaustion, mental distance or cynicism toward one's job, and reduced professional effectiveness. The WHO says the term applies to the work context and to chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
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