Fix That Feeds

Ask whether your relief weakens the very capacity that would remove the need for relief.

Every time your junior analyst gets stuck on a spreadsheet, you take over the keyboard and finish it yourself. It is faster, the client gets clean work, and he gets to watch. Yet six months in, he is stuck just as often, and you are more indispensable than ever. Your fix works every single time, which is exactly why the problem never goes away.

Fix That Feeds, as a quick check, is one question you ask about any relief that keeps recurring: does this relief weaken the very capacity that would remove the need for relief? The cue is a fix you have applied many times to the same symptom. The operation: name the symptom, name your fix, then name the underlying capability that would make the fix unnecessary (here, his skill and confidence), and ask whether your fix is starving that capability of practice, feedback, or investment. If yes, you have found why the problem is durable, and the intervention shifts from doing the work to building the capacity while tolerating short-term messiness. Do not apply this in genuine emergencies; when the cost of failure right now is severe, take over first and rebuild capacity after.