Things Leaders Do

Eliminating Single Points of Failure

• Colby Morris

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Episode Title:

Eliminating Single Points of Failure | Things Leaders Do Podcast

Episode Description (Show Notes):

What happens if the one thing holding your organization together suddenly falls apart?

In today's episode of Things Leaders Do, Colby Morris breaks down the critical leadership concept of eliminating single points of failure—before they cripple your business.

You will hear a real-world story from Colby’s time leading hospital operations, where an entire system was unknowingly dependent on a single employee. Plus, we explore how many founders unknowingly become their own organization’s biggest risk—and how to fix it.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • Why inspecting what is working is just as important as fixing what is broken
  • How Andy Stanley’s leadership principle applies to scaling resilient teams
  • The difference between managers who react and leaders who stress-test systems early
  • Why burnout is your biggest hidden threat—and how to build sustainable, resilient teams
  • How to involve your team in uncovering operational risks before they explode

Whether you are a CEO, a founder, or a team leader, you will walk away with actionable strategies to protect your organization from invisible risks—and build something that can truly scale.

If you want a resilient business, it starts today—with the right questions, the right systems, and the right leadership moves.

Resources and Links:

  • Connect with Colby on LinkedIn: LinkedIn Profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/colbymorris/)
  • Book Colby for keynotes, corporate training, or webinars: www.nxtstepadvisors.com
  • Contact Colby directly for speaking engagements or consulting: Colby@nxtstepadvisors.com


Speaker 1:

what if the thing keeping your organization together is the same thing that could tear it apart, that one person, that one process, that one system that, if it broke or burned out, would grind the entire machine to a stop? That, my friend, is what's called a single point of failure, and it's the blind spot that could cost you everything. In this episode we're diving into how to spot it, fix it, how to protect your business before it falls apart. Hey, listeners, I'm Colby Morris. Hey, listeners, I'm Colby Morris and welcome back to the TLD podcast. I've led from every level seriously, and this podcast is designed to give you real world leadership tools that you can start using immediately. Each episode is only 10 to 15 minutes long, short enough to fit into your commute and strong enough to change the way you lead. By the time you get there, let's go. So I want to tell you a story.

Speaker 1:

Years ago, I was leading operations at a hospital. Everything seemed fine, actually better than fine. It was smooth, no complaints, no fires, just working. It was smooth, no complaints, no fires, just working. One day I asked myself what's something going so well that I haven't checked on it in months? The answer Our linen and laundry service. It was run off site, but we owned it. There was never a delay, never a patient without sheets, not even a blip. So I drove down to see it in action and there he was one man running the whole show, supervising, covering for two sick employees, doing 10-hour shifts and still showing up like it was no big deal. When I asked how he was doing it all, he smiled and said well, I've got surgery in a month. I'll be out for a few weeks after that. That was our single point of failure One guy, one surgery, one risk away from a complete system shutdown. But because we caught it in time, we fixed it, we cross-trained, we mapped out the process, we built a backup plan and we went out for surgery. We had bumps, okay, but we didn't break. And that's the goal Resilience before crisis. Because if I hadn't asked the question, the hospital would have had a massive operational failure Because of linens.

Speaker 1:

So here's the main point I want to get through. Well, it's the first main point If you don't know why it's working, you won't know how to fix it when it breaks. Andy Stanley said it best. He said if you don't know why something's working when it is, you won't know how to fix it when it isn't. As leaders, we're just wired to fix what's broken, but elite leaders, they investigate what's working, because working doesn't always mean resilient. Sometimes that's just duct tape, adrenaline and hope.

Speaker 1:

And here's the hard truth, especially for my fellow founders out there you might be the single point of failure. If your business depends on you selling, hiring, solving and deciding every major thing. You aren't leading a business, you're babysitting a bomb. So what do you do? You go deeper. You ask the right questions Okay, why is this working? Who is behind it? What invisible factors make it work? What happens if that person, vendor or tool disappears tomorrow or tool disappears tomorrow? And then document the how, not just the what Okay. Don't just capture that it's working. Capture how it's being done, what systems are involved, what decisions are consistently made, what skills are being applied. If you can't clone the process, you don't own the process, okay.

Speaker 1:

And third, stress test the system. Pull key people off of projects temporarily Okay. Do that and see what falls through the cracks. Catch the hidden dependency while it's manageable Okay. And then build backup plans and practice them. Train multiple people to handle essential systems. Make sure that that knowledge is shared, not siloed Okay. Turn one person expertise into team-wide resilience.

Speaker 1:

When you build a business that's not dependent on one person or worse, yourself you build something that can scale without crumbling. All right. Main point number two everything works until it doesn't. So stress test it now. I had a friend in the military and he told me that they had an old saying that two is one and one is none. If you've only got one way something can work, then you don't have a system, you have a risk, and most leaders don't see that risk until the day it collapses. You need to stress test your systems before the stress hits.

Speaker 1:

Here's how Number one play the what if? Across every department. What if the system goes down? What if the vendor fails? What if a team lead resigns today and then? Two build redundancy before you need it. Have backup vendors ready. Cross-train secondary leaders for critical systems. Ensure every core process has a documented, shareable SOP. And three stimulate absence and loss.

Speaker 1:

Don't wait until someone's out. If you're just waiting until someone's out sick, you need to plan it. Okay, rotate people into backup roles. Run drills, for someone is unavailable, okay, track how fast your team adapts and what slows them down. Why? Because managers wait for cracks to appear, leaders though. They go looking for them before the earthquake. Resilient organizations aren't built during a crisis. They're built because leaders choose to pressurize and prepare before the cracks appear. All right.

Speaker 1:

Point three burnout. Is the canary in the coal mine man? This one's going to get deep. Let's talk about the biggest hidden single point of failure on your team burnout. According to Gallup, 76% of employees experience burnout at least sometimes and 28% feel burned out very often or always. Let that sink in. Another way to say, it is more than one in four. People on your team could be right on the edge and you may not even know it. People on your team could be right on the edge and you may not even know it. And when burnout hits, it's not just a loss of energy, it's a loss of knowledge, it's a loss of relationships, a loss of momentum. If one burned out person is the only one who knows how a system works, your business just walked into a minefield.

Speaker 1:

So, instead of celebrating the hero who saves the day, celebrate documentation, normalize, writing down key processes. Make it easy and expected, not optional. Celebrate cross-training. Build skill trees, not skill silos. Everyone should know how to step into another role, even imperfectly. And then delegation Reward leaders who empower others, not who hoard power and then celebrate shared ownership. Make resilience a team sport, not a personal burden.

Speaker 1:

If resilience isn't part of your culture, you're setting yourself up to be one resignation away from disaster. Look, it's time to go first. Leadership isn't just about putting out fires. It's about preventing the ones you never saw coming. So here's your action plan for this week Call a meeting, challenge your leadership team to find the hidden, single points of failure.

Speaker 1:

Push them to talk to their teams, especially the frontline staff. Stay curious, listen hard, because the real risks usually aren't in the boardroom. They're buried deep in the day-to-day grind. If you want a resilient business, it starts by asking the hard questions today before you're scrambling for answers tomorrow. Hey, if this episode helped you think differently about your leadership, I'd love to connect you can find me on LinkedIn and there's a link in the show notes for that and you can join the conversation with thousands of other leaders learning how to build better teams and stronger organizations. And if your company or leadership team could use a keynote speaker, corporate trainer or a workshop to dig into topics like this and more, I'd love to talk, reach out and let's build something that lasts. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.