How to Make Things Faster

Chapter 13. The Silver Bullet

One of the obstacles you may run into is the silver bullet expectation. The silver bullet expectation is the belief that no matter how many problems you’re feeling—say, for example, forty-nine—then there must be some switch you can flip, maybe a knob you can turn, that will solve them all. It’s the assumption that all your symptoms share a common cause, that everything will be collateral benefit.

But that assumption can cause problems. What if, in fact, there isn’t a single cause for all the different symptoms people are feeling? Looking for something that’s not there wastes time and erodes morale.

In Orange County, for example, we never would have gotten anywhere if we’d fixated on the riddle, “What single cause could possibly be messing up label printing, order taking, and forty-seven other things all at the same time?” There’s no sense getting mired in it. It’s an unanswerable question, because there wasn’t a single cause for all those symptoms. It’s just how things were.

There’s just no need to ever ask such a question. Whether or not there’s a silver bullet waiting in your future shouldn’t change your approach one way or the other. You need to start with the prioritized “list of grievances” either way. If curing the first symptom collaterally fixes everything else, then you can rejoice in your good luck. If your first cure doesn’t fix everything all at once, then you’ll move on to the new highest-priority symptom and continue from there.