Lesson 9
Fixes That Backfire
Recognise two traps that keep problems coming back: the fix whose side effect feeds the problem, and the quick relief that stops the real solution from growing.
Builds on
The spray that worked
In May the roses are crawling with greenfly. You spray them, and within a week the aphids are gone. By July they’re back, worse than ever, and you spray again. The same thing happens next year.
Some structures turn up so often, in gardens, kitchens, offices and councils, that systems thinkers have named them: archetypes. An archetype is a prompt, a familiar shape worth checking for, not a diagnosis. This lesson covers two of the commonest, and both start with a fix that really does work, at first.