The Art of Looking for Signals Instead of Symptoms
Why “seeing” is the first real step toward change.
Most change efforts begin with action. You might recognize most or all of these!
train the team,
redesign the workflow,
stand up a new dashboard,
hold a retrospective,
launch an initiative.
But in my experience, whether in teams or something like my garden, real change starts earlier.
It starts with noticing.
Noticing what’s actually happening over what we assume is happening.
Noticing signals in the system over symptoms on the surface.
Noticing the gap between intent and impact.
In the last 4 week arc I talked about changes in the wild. Now I’m going upstream to talk about improving our ability to deeply notice.
And it begins with a deceptively simple, four-step practice.
Why Seeing Systems is Hard (but game-changing)
By the time something becomes “a problem,” the system has usually been sending signals for a while.
Delays aren’t random. They’re patterned.
Rework isn’t about “poor discipline”. It’s about either a communication issue or learning along the way.
Fatigue isn’t a moral failing. It’s a signal that the load exceeds local capacity.
Yet most teams respond to symptoms, such as a missed deadline, a frustrated stakeholder, a process deviation, or a failed audit.
What if instead we trained ourselves to look for the signals underneath?
That shift from reacting to diagnosing is the foundation of sustainable change.
And you can practice it in just a few minutes a day.
The 4-Step Method to See What’s Really Going On
This method is simple, repeatable, and powerful. It helps you pause judgment, lower the noise, and learn to see the system clearly.
You can apply it to anything. Think of your last meeting that went sideways, a delivery hiccup you had to handle, a handoff error, or even a moment in your own workflow.
Let’s break it down.
A Real Moment
Stop summarizing. Zoom in.
Instead of saying,
“Our handoffs are always messy,”
capture a specific real moment:“At 3:10pm, during the release planning meeting, the integration engineer asked for clarifications on a requirement that had already been built.”
A real moment grounds us.
It keeps us from overgeneralizing and makes it possible to learn.
The key: one moment, not the pattern.
What Happened
Describe the facts without interpretation.
List only observable actions:
Who did what
In what order
What was said
What the system required (tools, data, approvals)
What constraints existed
No motives.
No stories.
No “should haves.”
This step stops blame before it starts. It allows you to document the work as the system currently demands it.
Why It Was Done That Way
Now, and only now, do we consider motivation.
Here we shift from factual to subjective, but still stay grounded.
Examples:
“They asked for clarification because requirements often change mid-sprint.”
“They hesitated because the deployment checklist is ambiguous.”
“They skipped the formal review because the deadline was tight and informal approvals are usually enough.”
We’re not trying to prove anything.
We’re learning how the system shapes behavior.
Every action has a logic.
Your job is to uncover it.
Negative Impact
Does this matter? Is it systemic? Is it worth addressing?
This is the decision point.
Some moments are noise.
Some are signals.
A few are systemic failures in disguise.
Ask:
Does this moment repeat?
Does it cross teams, roles, or functions?
Does it create rework, delay, or frustration?
What’s the cost if nothing changes?
Is this caused by individual behavior or by system design?
You’re not solving the problem here. You’re determining whether it’s a problem worth solving at the system level.
If the answer is yes, you’ve spotted a leverage point for meaningful change.
Why This Works
This method does three crucial things:
It slows down our instinct to blame.
We move from judgment (“someone messed up”) to curiosity (“what made this behavior make sense?”).It surfaces hidden constraints.
Systems are full of invisible forces: policies, metrics, expectations, norms. Seeing them is the first step to changing them.It reveals patterns we otherwise miss.
When you collect a week’s worth of “real moments,” you start to see structure instead of chaos.