Why do top-performing engineers suddenly start missing critical deadlines?

You might assume they lost their motivation or got distracted.

But most of the time, they are just fighting a broken system. Let's talk about the 85/15 Rule. 👇

When a time-sensitive project starts slipping, bad managers immediately blame the employee.

They schedule a "feedback session" or put the person on a Performance Improvement Plan.

But legendary management consultant W. Edwards Deming discovered a hard truth:

𝟴𝟱% of the time, a worker's failure is caused by the system or the tools they are forced to use. Only 𝟭𝟱% of the time is it actually the worker's fault.

Here is what that looks like in the real world:

Imagine a brilliant design engineer working on a major product launch. Suddenly, their deliverables grind to a halt.

A bad manager assumes the engineer is just being lazy.

A great manager sits down and asks, "What is blocking you?"

They quickly discover the engineer's workstation has been randomly crashing for months. Every time it crashes, they lose hours of complex CAD data and have to start over.

The engineer isn't failing. They are being sabotaged by their own hardware, and IT hasn't fixed it.

If you are a manager, your primary job isn't to give orders. It is to remove friction. Follow these 3 rules:

𝟭. 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁

Before you criticize an employee's output, check their inputs. Do they have the right software? Is their hardware actually functioning?

𝟮. 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀

If your team is suffering from data loss or system failures, it is your job to escalate that to purchasing or IT. You have to be the shield that protects their workflow.

𝟯. 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀

When an employee says, "My computer keeps crashing," don't tell them to just "figure it out." Believe them, and fix the root cause.

Have you ever been blamed for a delay when it was really just a hardware or software failure? Let me know below! 👇