After it snows, if you don’t shovel quickly and thoroughly, a slippery layer may form on the sidewalks. If that happens, some people put out salt pellets to melt the ice. While a little bit usually gets the job done, one house on my block went crazy with the salt. Weeks after the last snow, it still covers the sidewalk, degrading the concrete and serving as a nemesis to dogs’ paws.
They took the easy way out by letting the chemicals do the work instead of doing it themselves.
The same pattern occurs in organizations when people only consider the short-term ease instead of the long-term consequences. It’s faster to shove all the papers in a drawer, but it makes it harder to find them later. It’s quicker to do something yourself the first time, but then the other person never learns the process, and you have to do it forever. You can let AI do your writing, but you may pay the price on the back end if you don’t fact-check or edit.
Don’t make the front end the easy part of the process. Do the work initially and benefit from a positive residual effect.
