“You can’t solve a problem with the same mindset that created it.” — Albert Einstein
We see that quote so often it’s practically become a cliché.
But in organizations, that’s exactly the mirror we don’t like to look into.
Because when something gets stuck, we usually do…
more of the same.
Just faster.
Tighter.
With extra control, another meeting, another KPI.
And then we hope that somehow it’ll finally work.
Sound familiar?
The mindset that creates the problem
In many manufacturing companies and logistics environments, “solving” has meant for decades:
- make an analysis
- find the cause
- take a measure
- embed it in a procedure
And to be fair: it has delivered a lot. But the landscape is changing.
Today’s problems are less about technology or process, and much more about behavior, collaboration, trust, and ownership and everything that stays “under the surface.”
Exactly the things you can’t engineer away.
Why your team “isn’t coming along” (and you get tired)
Imagine a team leader notices his people are becoming more and more passive.
He sets up an extra meeting, tightens the planning, adds KPIs.
For a moment it seems to help: things start moving again.
But a few weeks later, the same pattern creeps back in.
Not because people don’t want to.
But because the system has taught them that taking initiative leads to hassle.
The result?
- “We want more ownership” — but decisions remain top-down.
- “We want more collaboration” — but departments are judged on their own targets.
- “We want a feedback culture” — but the honest conversation still feels risky.
The harder we try to steer, the less people move. The other mindset
What Einstein is really saying: you have a leap to make.
Not to a new tool. But to a new way of looking.
From:
- control → to trust
- fixing → to exploring
- faster → to more honest
- steering behavior → to understanding the layer underneath
It starts with one simple question I often put on the table in teams:
“What do we keep doing here, over and over again… while we’re actually saying we want something else?”
There’s gold in that.
A small exercise for tomorrow on the shop floor
Pick one problem you’ve been carrying around for a while.
And answer these three questions:
- What reflex kicks in for us? (extra control, extra alignment, extra pressure?)
- What does that reflex give us in the short term? (calm, overview, a sense of certainty?)
- What does it cost us in the long term? (ownership, energy, initiative, trust?)
You don’t have to solve it right away.
But you do have to dare to see it.
Because that’s where change starts.
Which “reflex” do you see most often in your organization when things get tense?
