FIELD GUIDE 01
When Solutions
Become Problems
.UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
A solution changes the system it enters.
Sometimes the system responds in ways we didn't intend.
THE PATTERN
We often imagine a problem as something sitting in front of us.
So we intervene.
A company wants to improve productivity. It introduces a performance target. A website wants more engagement. It makes notifications more prominent. A person wants to avoid an uncomfortable situation. They develop a way of coping with it.
In each case, the intervention changes the conditions around the problem. People adapt. Incentives shift. Behaviours change. New relationships form. The result may be exactly what we intended.
Or it may be something else entirely. Sometimes that unexpected outcome becomes the next problem.
THE MISSING LINK
THE MISSING LINK
The intervention becomes part of the system.
We often think about solutions as if we are standing outside a problem and applying something to it.
But systems don't stand still while we intervene.
Once introduced, the solution changes the conditions around the problem — and the system responds to that change.
The solution is no longer simply something we did.
It is now part of what is happening.
LOOK FOR IT
You may be seeing this pattern when:
ORGANISATIONS
A metric improves while the underlying outcome doesn't.
DESIGN & PROCESSES
A shortcut makes one person's task easier but moves the work elsewhere.
HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
A behaviour you tried to eliminate simply appears somewhere else.
THE TAKEAWAY
Before asking, "Did the solution work?" ask:
"What did the solution change?"
That question shifts attention from the intervention itself to the system responding to it.
YOU'VE SEEN THE PATTERN
Now learn how to work with it