The Fire Suppression Trap
Preventing small organizational failures doesn't eliminate failure - it accumulates failure debt that eventually comes due with catastrophic interest.
You cannot eliminate disturbance. You can only choose between regular small disturbances or rare catastrophic ones.
Fire suppression in US forests (1900s-2000s) prevented natural fire cycles. Rangers extinguished every fire. But beneath the canopy, fuel accumulated - dead branches, fallen logs, dense understory shrubs. In natural fire cycles, small fires (every 5-15 years) would burn this fuel. With complete suppression, fuel built up for decades. Result: catastrophic wildfires (2000s-2020s) with 50-100 years of accumulated fuel. Yellowstone fires (1988) burned 793,000 acres after 80+ years of suppression.
Business Application of The Fire Suppression Trap
Preventing small organizational failures doesn't eliminate failure - it accumulates failure debt that eventually comes due with catastrophic interest. Never managing out underperformers, never killing weak products, never restructuring during profitable times leads to eventual catastrophic collapse.