If it feels like you're dealing with the same problems again and again, it's probably because you are. They show up in slightly different ways, on different days, with different people involved, but underneath it all, it's the same issue repeating itself, and over time, that becomes exhausting, not just for you, but for your team as well.
It's easy to assume these recurring problems are down to effort or attitude, or that someone simply isn't doing their job properly. In most cases, that's not what's going on. What you're really seeing is a gap between what's meant to happen and what actually does happen in the day to day running of your business.
Where the gap shows up
You can spot it in small, everyday inconsistencies - a customer experience that varies depending on who's on - a task that gets done differently by each person who picks it up - something that goes wrong, gets sorted quickly, and then rears its ugly head again a week later. Each time it happens, someone steps in, sorts it, and carries on; it feels productive in the moment, but it doesn't change the pattern.
When the Frustration Gap isn't addressed, you end up stuck in reactive mode, getting quicker at solving problems, more efficient even, but nothing really improves because the cause hasn't been tackled. You keep having to step in, and your team keeps relying on you to do so.
Shift your focus from who to why
So how to close the gap - the million dollar question? You'll close it when you stop focusing on who made the mistake and start looking at why the issue keeps happening in the first place -changing your focus from fixing symptoms, to understanding what's underneath.
The simplest way to begin is to choose one issue that keeps coming back and take the time to dig into it properly. Look at where and when it shows up, who's involved, and what actually happens, rather than what should be happening.
What you're looking for is the root cause, and more often than not, that comes back to a lack of clarity, inconsistent training, or the fact that everyone has their own version of what 'right' looks like, because it's never been agreed properly.
Fix it with your team, not for them
Once you can see what's really going on, you fix it with your team - and that's important - rather than presenting them with an answer. When people are involved in shaping the way something should be done, they understand it better, they're more likely to follow it, and they're far more willing to take ownership of making it work.
Agree the right way together, and take the time to make sure it's simple, logical and repeatable, so anyone in the team can follow the what, the how and the why, then capture it somewhere accessible (ideally in your training system!) so your team can come back to it when they need to.
From there, it needs to be properly embedded, and that means training people in the agreed way, and giving feedback to reinforce it when it's needed.
Without that training and feedback even a well thought through approach will fade over time, and before long you're back dealing with the same issue again.
Until it is, the same issues will keep resurfacing, just dressed up slightly differently each time.
Close the Frustration Gap, and the repeating issues start to disappear, your team grows in confidence because they know what's expected, and you're no longer pulled into firefighting every fix.
Instead, you get the space to focus on moving the business forward, rather than constantly bringing it back on track.
That's the real goal - not to remove every problem, that's impossible - but to stop solving the same one over and over again.
