I’ve spent the better part of my career in operations, beginning in the military and continuing in healthcare, working alongside the people who keep everything moving. The forklift operators. The distribution techs. The unit clerks. The supervisors who walk ten miles a day without blinking. These are the individuals who hold the mission together. And yet, there’s something I’ve observed over the years that continues to concern me.

There is a quiet crisis unfolding beneath the surface of many organizations. It is not about talent. It is not about work ethic. It is not even about burnout, although that is certainly present and deserves serious attention. It is about curiosity, or more specifically, the lack of it.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped helping front-line workers understand why things operate the way they do. We handed them a job description, a task list, and a badge, but we never explained how their role fits into the broader mission. We never connected their daily work to the financial realities, strategic goals, or operational outcomes of the organization. We made a committed effort to stop teaching.

In many ways, this is not their fault. They were brought into systems that reward efficiency over understanding. They come in, complete the tasks, and go home. If they are consistent and reliable, they are promoted. Unfortunately, this often results in leaders who understand their specific role but have no real insight into how the larger system works or how their decisions impact it.

I have seen this firsthand. A hiring freeze is announced, and almost immediately, leaders scramble to push through as many job requisitions as possible, not because those roles have been critically evaluated, but because there is fear of losing resources. Months later, the same organization is forced to lay off staff to manage costs. In many cases, the short-term rush to protect one’s own department contributes directly to long-term instability for the
entire system.
And rarely does anyone pause to ask, “Why did we do that?”

This is not just a healthcare issue. It reflects a broader challenge in how organizations develop their people and how they teach systems thinking across all levels of leadership.

That is what this series is about.
I want to explore the unseen connections between front-line behavior and organizational performance. I want to ask more meaningful questions about how we prepare people to lead. Most importantly, I want to challenge the notion that being good at your job is the same as understanding your impact.

Because in complex environments, success depends on more than just getting the job done. It depends on cultivating people who think critically, collaborate across functions, and understand the greater mission, whether they are managing a storeroom or sitting in the C-suite.

This series is called Beyond the Pie Slice.
Each post will examine a real-world theme or scenario, grounded in personal experience. Some examples will come from healthcare, others from different industries, but they will all revolve around the same core idea:

Organizations thrive when people understand more than just their piece of the puzzle.

Field Notes from the Author
This idea has been on my mind for years, surfacing every time I see a well-meaning frontline worker or a newly promoted leader miss the big picture. This series is my attempt to share what I’ve learned and what we might build if we learn to lead beyond the job description.