The Maintenance Paradox

Most machines, including cars and the human body, require periodic maintenance and rest.

It never feels like a good time to perform maintenance, as there is always something more productive to do instead. Yet, you will not go far without it: eventually, your machine will break.

Plenty of activities share this characteristic: working out, spending time with your loved ones, training employees, building a solid organizational culture, and managing risks are all activities that seem unnecessary in the short term yet are indispensable in the long term.

The root cause of the Maintenance Paradox is the deep-rooted belief that if we get the most out of each day, we will also make the most of the year.

But it just doesn't work this way. Some actions, such as performing maintenance, have benefits that are only visible in the long term and, thus, are unaccounted for by short-term evaluations.

Example: Why Managers Plateau

The Maintenance Paradox is a common root cause of why brilliant managers sometimes fail to have a brilliant career.

Managers constantly face high demands for their team’s output. So, it always feels like there’s no time for training. But unless they find the time to train their people, the situation will not improve. It actually gets worse over time as the work to be done outgrows their team’s capabilities.

The solution is to switch from short-term to long-term evaluations and realize that training is not only necessary but also makes the future easier, as people will be more efficient and effective.

Only managers who can shift from short- to long-term evaluations reliably succeed over the long term.

Summary

Improving skills, working out, resting, strengthening relationships, performing maintenance, managing risks, and taking a step back to consider the broader picture are all activities that seem like a waste of time in the short term yet are indispensable in the long term.

If you use only short-term evaluations to decide how to spend your time, you will make suboptimal choices and plateau.

Instead, use long-term evaluations. This doesn’t mean you should never take any short-term action; it means to take a mix of short- and long-term actions as optimal to sustain success over the long term.