Problem to Solve or Tension to Manage?

Founders love solving problems. The dopamine hit of resolving an issue or fixing a process is a big part of why we do what we do (well, that and the Lamborghinis). But not every challenge is a problem that can be solved. Some are tensions that must be managed—perpetually and imperfectly.

Problems have clear endpoints. They are resolved, removed, or fixed.

Tensions, on the other hand, are dynamic. They exist because both sides of the equation bring value, and eliminating one in favor of the other would create a worse outcome.

For example, if we micromanaged our fractional HR generalists at Same Page with rigid guidelines, we'd strip away what makes them so valuable—their judgment, creativity, and adaptability to each client’s culture. But if we went completely hands-off, we’d lose sight of what’s happening, and the brand would suffer.

There is no permanent solution here, only a tension to manage. Too much oversight? We suffocate the magic. Too little? We lose control of quality. The job is to find the right dial setting, then adjust it slightly when things drift too far in either direction. (There’s probably a killer sailing analogy here, but I don’t know anything about boats.)

I deal with dozens of these tensions every day, and I bet you do too.

Price too high, and you lose customers. Price too low, and you devalue your offering. Move too fast in hiring, and you risk a bad fit. Move too slow, and you lose great candidates. Customize everything, and scaling breaks. Standardize too much, and customers lose the sense that it’s built for them.

You’ll never solve any of these.

If you feel like you’re beating your head against the same wall over and over, it’s a good sign you’re actually dealing with a tension to manage, not a solvable problem.

Other telltale signs it’s a tension to manage, not a problem to solve:

-Solving it just creates another equally bad problem.

-It keeps coming back no matter how many times you “fix” it.

-Both sides have real value, and choosing one over the other makes things worse.

Every time I face one of these situations, I convince myself I can solve it if I just work harder or think longer. Every time, I fail. Rather than forcing a resolution, the real work is accepting that some things won’t be solved—only managed.

Alright, so you get it. But what do you actually do when you’re in the middle of it?

First, call it what it is. Acknowledging the tension—saying it out loud—immediately shifts how you and others approach it. My co-founder Callie does this all the time. It’s wildly helpful (and only mildly annoying). The moment she says, “This is just a tension that will always be here,” we stop chasing a silver bullet and start working the trade-offs.

Second, learn to let go. I’m not your therapist, and this isn’t about your childhood, but Carl Jung said:

“All the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble. They must be so, for they express the necessary polarity inherent in every self-regulating system. They can never be solved, but only outgrown.”

That’s a deep way of saying: Quit searching for a resolution that doesn’t exist. Learn to operate within the tension instead. When you catch yourself obsessing over a perfect fix, stop and ask yourself what small adjustment will keep things moving.

Finally, be mature enough to embrace two competing ideas at once. Holding tension isn’t easy, and it requires resisting the urge to let politics, personal preferences, or the messenger influence your approach. When you feel yourself leaning too far to one side, force yourself to argue the other. If you can’t make a strong case for both, you don’t understand the tension well enough to manage it.

If you’re constantly dealing with tensions instead of clean, solvable problems—congratulations, you’re in a leadership role. Now act like it. Leadership isn’t about finding perfect solutions; it’s about having the maturity to navigate competing truths and the discipline to keep adjusting, even when there’s no clear endpoint.

Keep chasing perfect solutions and you’ll drive yourself (and everyone else) crazy.