An unfortunate, unexpected, unlikely situation comes about. You deal with it. Then, while cleaning up the mess, you decide to put a process in place to prevent it from happening again.
But! Don’t forget to weigh the costs of that new process versus the cost of doing nothing.
There’s a thing that goes on in your brain called intervention bias. When something bad happens, intervention bias makes you feel like you need to do something about it. Sometimes the intervention ends up being helpful. But sometimes it actually makes things worse, in the grand scheme.
This is how bureaucracy grows, too: We add processes and procedures, little by little, in the name of averting risks that are less costly than the processes meant to prevent them.
Sometimes the remedy is worse than the malady. At least ask yourself: “What if I do nothing?”
