Systems + Money

The Most Expensive Work in Your Organization Is the Cost You Can’t Monetize

This is a pervasive issue in organizations — and one of the hardest to confront.

Because you can’t easily monetize it.
You can’t point to a clean line on your P&L.

But it’s there.

It lives in the “temporary” way of doing things.

Temporary fixes are usually introduced with good intent — to bridge the gap between a current state and an intended future state. They’re meant to be short-lived, practical, and necessary.

The problem is, people don’t let go of them.

Temporary becomes familiar.
Familiar becomes comfortable.
And comfort becomes the enemy of the system.

Over time, these workarounds start to detract from the very system they were meant to support. They create confusion, inconsistency, and eventually mistrust.

And when trust in the system erodes, people cling even harder to the temporary — because they know it works.

What’s actually happening is this:
The organization hasn’t established trust in the permanent process yet.

So when something breaks, people don’t say, “The process needs reinforcement.”
They say, “The system failed.”

And when the people who know the temporary fix leave?
It feels like confirmation.

The workaround becomes legend.
The system becomes suspect.

In a perfect world, we would ban temporary fixes altogether.
No exceptions. No bridges. No shortcuts.

Because temporary things linger.
They haunt.
And they quietly sabotage long-term change.

But we don’t live in a perfect world.

So yes — sometimes temporary has to do.

The question isn’t whether you allow a temporary fix.
It’s how you manage it so it doesn’t become permanent by default.

Here’s what actually works:

• Name it explicitly as temporary — in writing
• Assign ownership for the permanent solution (one person)
• Set a non-negotiable deadline for implementation
• Plan the migration from temporary to permanent
• Train to support new behavior, not just new steps
• Set a post-change boundary that prevents slipping back

Because the moment you allow regression, the intended change is over.

I know — this starts to sound like a project.

That’s because it is.

It’s change management.
It’s people management.
It’s accountability, boundaries, and deadlines.

And until organizations treat “temporary” as a managed risk instead of a convenience, they’ll continue paying for it — just not in a place they can easily see.