Dear Reader
We have a persistent blind spot in the way we approach projects. We confuse outputs with outcomes and then celebrate delivery without asking whether value has been created. I was reminded of this recently when I cracked a tooth in half and needed an implant. The dentist’s solution was straightforward: replace the tooth and move on. When a second tooth began to crack, the answer was the same. There was no pause to wonder why the teeth were failing, no deeper diagnostics, and no curiosity about the cause. The focus was on treating the symptoms. My wife, who is a medical doctor, looked at me differently. She examined my face and noticed that my jaw muscles were far stronger than normal. She understood that this was the true source of the problem and applied treatment to reduce the muscle tone. Once the underlying issue was addressed, the teeth stopped cracking.
The same pattern plays out in organizations. I was advising on a situation where a client was hiring a vendor to provide services. The operations team flagged a serious concern. The vendor’s staffing was too thin, which meant that service quality would suffer and the operations team would be forced to spend even more time managing poor performance. For them the desired outcome was clear: a vendor properly resourced to deliver well. The finance representative had a different view. He asked why it mattered if the vendor burned out their people, since that would not show up on his balance sheet. For him the output was all that counted, a contract signed at the lowest cost. The difference in perspective was stark. One side focused on outcomes and long-term value, while the other treated a cheap output as success. What looked efficient on paper risked undermining the very reason the vendor was being hired in the first place.
What Have I Been Learning
We have to train ourselves to look beneath the surface. It is tempting to accept first impressions because speed feels efficient, yet those shortcuts often create quiet mistakes that compound over time. Cognitive ease rewards what sounds right and what comes quickly. Decisions then drift toward what is familiar rather than what is true. Real value only arrives when we slow the impulse to conclude and ask a few more disciplined questions.
Language offers a simple illustration. I hear fulsome used as a synonym for thorough or in depth. The word lands in a meeting, it sounds impressive, people infer the meaning from context, and repetition turns guesswork into habit. The result is a contagion of unexamined usage that spreads until it feels normal. The fix is not grammar policing. The fix is curiosity. When something new enters the conversation, pause long enough to test what it actually means. That small act of checking interrupts the slide from fluency to error.
The same pattern shapes decisions in projects. Leaders hear a confident update and accept it at face value. A cheap proposal sounds efficient, so it passes. A schedule looks precise, so it becomes proof of progress. Strong leadership asks for the evidence that value will be realized, not just delivered. The discipline is simple to state and hard to practice. Ask what problem is truly being solved, what evidence would convince a skeptical peer, and what would have to be true for value to hold over time. That habit of questioning is the human work that will matter most as the mechanical parts of project management move to machines.
Where Have My Travels Taken Me
I have not been traveling recently, yet a memory from last winter at Big White keeps returning. On the surface the trip was about logistics. I had a condo week from a fundraiser auction, so we packed up, made the drive, and got ourselves onto the hill. Those details fade quickly. What remains is the deeper layer of the experience. It was my wife’s first time skiing. I remember how quickly she picked it up, the moment she laughed as she gently embraced a pine tree, and the pizza dinner with cold beers that tasted perfect after a long day on the slopes.
The real impact came from that second order of experience, not the mechanics. It was not about getting to the resort or checking the box of a ski trip. It was about sharing time together, creating a memory that endures, and feeling the joy of doing something new side by side. That is what stuck.
What Am I Reading
In August I submitted my first book to the publisher, and the process of writing it forced me to look well beyond the surface level rituals that are so often mistaken for project management. The plans, the reports, and the transactions are visible and measurable, yet they are not what truly shape results. When you look past those surface layers, the work becomes both simpler and more profound, because the focus shifts toward the deeper forces that actually determine success.
Procrastination is one of those forces. Every leader has encountered it and it is easy to label it as laziness, lack of care, or simply being too busy. Those explanations come quickly, yet they are misleading. The real driver is always the same: fear. It may be fear of judgment, fear of making a mistake, or fear of missing a deadline. Decisions are made emotionally long before they are justified rationally, and in the moment when fear strikes, people instinctively choose the temporary relief of avoidance. They turn to deflection, excuses, or withdrawal, not because they lack willpower, but because fear has taken the lead.
The implication is clear. If you want to address procrastination, you must work at the level of fear. The task is to reduce it by creating conditions where people feel safe enough to act. As a last resort you can increase fear to the point where inaction seems more threatening than the work itself, although this is little more than the use of a stick. The moment that stick disappears the behavior will return to its original state. Sustainable change only occurs when fear is lessened and the person gains the confidence to move forward.
Closing Insight
Every part of this newsletter points toward the same truth. We celebrate outputs because they are easy to measure, while outcomes often remain hidden beneath the surface. Whether it is a cracked tooth, a poorly staffed vendor, a misused word, or a ski trip that becomes more than its logistics, the real story is always deeper. The leaders who thrive will be those who resist the comfort of surface answers, who ask the harder questions, and who stay accountable until value is truly realized.
Until next time,
Kursten