Ghosts in the System: Why Naming Dysfunction Isn’t Fluff. It’s Infrastructure
Naming a dysfunction doesn’t solve it, but it makes it visible. Without shared language, teams treat symptoms, not systems: feature soup, strategy drift, prioritization theater. Name it to align, track patterns, and move from vague complaints to structural diagnosis and action.
A recent comment on one of my posts made me pause. It said something like:
“Naming a problem can feel like solving it - but often just hides the real issue.”
I started replying. Then I stopped.
Because the question underneath was real: Does naming a dysfunction actually help? Or is it just a distraction from the work?
I turned it into this instead.