How can we attack the ROOT 🦷 of the cause

When he was just 21, a dentist told my grandad that his teeth were starting to rot and it would be best to get false ones. So the dentist yanked them all out and gave him a full set of dentures which, of course, he then needed a dentist to maintain for the rest of his life.

I’ve been thinking about this while processing Microsoft’s telemetry, which shows that the average person gets 275 notifications a day, just from Teams 365 alone.

It reminded me of how easily we accept new solutions to what might be manageable problems. We rush to fit digital dentures — tools like Co-pilot — to help us cope with the chaos.

Don’t get me wrong, maybe AI will help.

But before we jump to the fix, maybe we need a metaphorical hygienist. Someone to help us clean up the root cause of all this, the pop-pop-pop of distractions that overwhelm, erode focus, and weaken real connection at work.

Otherwise, we’re just pulling the teeth without asking what’s rotting them in the first place.

What do you think?

Christine