Addressing the Real Problem – Not!


Ignoring the problem

I worked in a few businesses where you’d regularly have to don safety glasses and/or a hardhat and venture into the shop to discuss or observe some manufacturing issue. And every time I’d go out there, I’d see the “Days Without A Lost Time Accident” sign and, unless something had happened recently, think nothing of it.

Then, more than ten years later, I’m folding laundry and listening the radio and like a bolt out of the blue this cartoon appears in my brain fully formed. That happens pretty rarely and it’s always much appreciated.

Maybe I should hang a sign next to my drawing table – “Days Without an Epiphany Cartoon.” Then again….

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Mark Anderson Mark Anderson's cartoons appear in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. His business cartoons are available for licensing at his website, Andertoons.com.

4 Reactions
  1. Funny! My corporate experience includes two positions where we had meetings all day and talked about getting things done… but our time was so consumed with meetings and planning meetings not much got done!

    • Ironic, isn’t it? Meetings are great time consumers simply because there are so many people talking and instead of acting on ideas, you overcomplicate things by talking about it and planning it. It’s like feeling like you’re doing something, when really you’re not.

  2. Maybe this cartoon could be applicable to other areas than business too… 😉

    • I was thinking the same thing, Martin! Can definitely be applied to areas other than business. I remember when I was a university student, I used to spend AGES researching for an assignment, taking out loads of books from the library, printing out lots, visiting other libraries if needed. Half of the time I spent doing that was just a deliberate distraction from the nitty-gritty, writing the actual assignment.