Are Your Lights On?

We do not deny that occasionally the parts of the nonfunctioning System may be so disposed that a good swift kick will cause them to fall into place, so that the System can resume functioning. Ordinarily, however, such a maneuver merely produces one last spasmodic effort, after which the System subsides into total immobility.

A “Shifting the Burden” story, like a “Fixes That Backfire” situation, usually begins with a problem symptom that prompts someone to intervene and “solve” it.

Reframe and address the root problem: give up the fix that works only on the symptom. Every fix that backfires is driven by an implicit target in the balancing loop. So make it explicit. What’s the problem you are really trying to fix?

you’ll see that what started as a “Fix That Backfired” was in fact a “Shifting the Burden” system. This revealed the need to focus efforts on the fundamental problem-correcting process (the left-hand side of the diagram).