Do less harm first: subtraction beats quick fixes in complex systems

When systems are complex, every tweak has side effects. We act, feel busy, and often make things worse. A better bias is via negativa—help by removing harm first. Delete one noisy meeting and the team breathes. Stop a redundant process and errors fall. Your phone might buzz as you cancel a standing call, and the quiet that follows will tell you more than the last ten agendas.

Consider a manager who fought falling code quality with more checklists and more reviews. Nothing improved. For two weeks, she removed a daily status meeting and cut review points to two clear gates. Developers got longer, calmer blocks to think, and the reviews focused on real risk. Bug rates fell without any new tool. A parent noticed something similar. Bedtime chaos eased when late‑night screens disappeared. No sticker chart was needed.

This isn’t anti‑action, it’s smarter action. In medicine, unnecessary treatments can harm more than help. In work, constant fiddling causes coordination cost and confusion. Subtraction creates space for natural repair and better signals. Then, and only then, add a carefully limited intervention with a clear end point so it doesn’t become tomorrow’s problem.

The rule of thumb: remove first, wait, observe, then add only if needed. You’ll be surprised how often the subtraction solves the issue. And when it doesn’t, you’ll have a cleaner canvas for a targeted fix.

Make a quick list of your current ‘treatments,’ from meetings to tools to supplements. Pick one that looks low value and pause it for two weeks, tracking the specific outcomes you care about. Shift from daily tinkering to weekly reviews with clear triggers for action, so you’re not adding noise. Write a simple escalation ladder that starts with removal, then waiting, and only introduces a capped, time‑boxed fix if needed. Start with one subtraction today and pay attention to the quiet that follows.