When something goes wrong at work, most people jump straight into fixing mode. But as Keith Cunningham says in The Road Less Stupid, smart leaders don’t rush – they think. They stop long enough to ask one powerful question:

Is this a people issue or a process issue?

Cunningham calls this “thinking time” – taking a pause to ask better questions before taking action. He argues that most business problems are misdiagnosed because we react to symptoms instead of uncovering the root cause. Nearly everything that goes wrong comes down to either a people problem or a process problem – and sometimes, a mix of both.

A real example

When I worked in banking, one of my team members had a reputation for being slow and a bit of a moaner. He often complained about being overloaded and said he needed an assistant – which no one else on the team had. On the surface, it looked like a clear people issue: time management, attitude, maybe even motivation.

But when I dug deeper, it turned out to be a process issue. The trade entry system wasn’t automatically calculating the cash value number, so he had to work it out manually and override the system – for more than 30 trades a day. What should have been a 15-minute task had become a two-hour slog.

That said, there was also a people element. He was a director, so relatively senior – why hadn’t he raised the issue sooner? And if he had, why hadn’t he made sure it got the attention of the back office and ensured it was sorted? In the end, it was both: a broken process and a missed accountability.

Cunningham’s point is exactly this: if you fix only the person, the broken system keeps breaking people. If you fix only the system, you miss a chance to raise standards and ownership. Great leaders recognise when it’s one, the other – or both.

3 ways to diagnose the real problem

1. Ask the right question first.
   Use Cunningham’s thinking time: What’s actually causing this? What’s not happening that should be? What’s happening that shouldn’t?
2. Walk the process yourself.
   Go see how the work happens in reality. If good people can’t succeed within the system, that’s a process problem – not a performance one.
3. Fix in the right order.
   Always repair the system first, then address skill or behaviour. Once the process works, if the problem remains, it’s a people issue.

Cunningham sums it up perfectly:

“Smart people make dumb mistakes because they don’t stop to think.”

Taking even a few minutes to ask “Is this a people issue or a process issue?” can save hours of wasted effort – and lead you straight to the real solution.