Run Towards the Fire: Why Problems Cost More When You Ignore Them

Years ago, I learned the hard way that problems don’t age like fine wine:  they age like unrefrigerated seafood. The longer you let them sit, the worse they smell, the more costly they become, and the more likely they are to make everyone sick. In business, this lesson is crucial: if you don’t run toward problems, they will find you anyway, and they will bring friends.

The Hidden Interest Rate of Unsolved Problems

Imagine every unsolved problem as a high-interest loan. The moment you ignore it, the balance starts compounding.

A minor defect on the shop floor becomes a field failure. A delayed conversation with a struggling employee turns into a resignation.

A nagging customer complaint morphs into a viral social media nightmare. The cost of inaction isn't linear; it's exponential.

The longer you wait, the more you pay.

I once watched a company ignore a minor quality issue because, in their words, "It’s just a small batch."

That small batch became a recall.

That recall became a lost customer.

That lost customer became a revenue dip that led to layoffs.

The original problem?

A $0.05 seal that could’ve been caught with basic quality-at-the-source discipline. Instead, it cost them millions.

Quality at the Source: Everyone's Job

Most companies have a QC department, but here’s the harsh truth: if quality is only the responsibility of QC, you’ve already lost.

Think of it like cleaning up after dinner. If you tell your kids, "Don't worry about your mess:  Mom will get it," you’ll raise adults who can’t clean up after themselves. Quality works the same way.

If only one department is responsible, the rest of the company learns to pass the mess along. And when that mess finally reaches QC, it’s often too late, too expensive, or both.

The best organizations bake quality into the process. Every person, from machine operators to executives, has skin in the game.

They don’t just check their own work; they actively look for problems and solve them at the lowest level possible. If something seems off, they don’t assume someone else will catch it:  they run toward it.

Sharing Your Mistakes: The Fastest Way to Level Up

One of the hardest but most powerful habits to develop is openly sharing mistakes. It’s uncomfortable. It takes humility. But the alternative: letting others stumble into the same potholes you did… is just wasteful.

Early in my career, I made a massive mistake on a project. I introduced a new tumbling process to replace an old grinding method, thinking it would be an easy improvement. What I failed to do was get operator input first.

The operators, who had decades of experience with the grinding process, weren’t convinced the tumbling method would work as well. Since I hadn’t involved them, they didn’t trust it, and the rollout went very poorly. Instead of a smooth transition, I got resistance, rework, and a frustrated production team.

For a while, I kept that failure to myself. Then, in a training session years later, I shared it as a cautionary tale. The reaction? A wave of relief from the group. "Oh good, I’m not the only one who’s done that!" And better yet:  some of them avoided making the same mistake entirely. Next time, I made sure to get operator buy-in first, and the difference was night and day.

The more leaders share their stumbles, the faster their teams learn. Humility accelerates organizational wisdom. A culture where people hide mistakes is a culture doomed to repeat them.

The Bottom Line

If you want a lean, resilient, and high-performing organization, you can’t afford to let problems simmer. Run toward them. Solve them fast. Make quality everyone’s job. And for the love of continuous improvement:  share your mistakes so others don’t have to learn the hard way.

Problems don’t fix themselves, and they never get cheaper with time. So next time you spot one, lace up your shoes and sprint toward it. Your future self (and your bottom line) will thank you.