A remedy that relieves the symptom quickly often worsens the cause, prompting more of the same remedy.
Senge's archetype. Painkillers for back pain, overdraft facilities for cash-flow gaps, and hiring contractors to clear a backlog all relieve the symptom while making the underlying condition more likely to recur.
In practice
- A team clears a backlog with a weekend push, which conceals the intake problem and guarantees the next backlog.
- A council fills potholes on a road whose drainage is the cause, and returns each winter with a larger repair.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Design & Systems
- Essay
- Why systems behave against intuition