When my van’s awning ripped, I knew I had a problem.
I was camped in outback South Australia, at the magnificent Rawnsley Park Station.
I'd been having a lovely time. I’d hiked the bluff overlooking Wilpena Pound, had our camp swarmed by resident sheep, and watched as an emu father and his six gangly chicks wandered close by.
My dog Lexi and I were relaxing in our little sun tent, protected from hundreds of incessantly curious flies.
Then out of nowhere, a gust of wind ripped the awning and set it gyrating like Seinfeld's Elaine on the dance floor.
Not knowing what to do, but figuring removing the ripped fabric was part of the solution, I decided to tear it from the awning frame.
What a mistake.
It was only then I realised that the fabric didn’t just protect me from sunshine and rain.
It had a second purpose.
It enabled the awning frame to retract.
Without the fabric, I couldn’t get the frame back into its housing.
Imagine driving your car with a five-metre clothes horse stuck to the side and you’ll get a sense of the problem.
Thinking about it since, I’ve realised there’s a tendency in business to tear the fabric off the frame.
To tackle what looks like the problem, without realising what else it's doing.
Take productivity, for example.
Too many meetings? Our instinct is to cancel them.
But meetings do more than share updates. They keep people aligned, allow people to raise problems, and build the relationships that make collaboration easier.
Cancel them and that work either moves into side conversations or stops altogether.
Too many emails? Our instinct is to tell people to stop emailing.
But email volume is often a symptom of unclear communication: vague requests, missing context, or not having an obvious owner.
Cut the emails without fixing the clarity, and the questions simply move to Teams, phone calls and desk drop-ins.
In both cases, the better fix is to repair the fabric, not remove it.
Keep the meeting, but change how you use your time together. Keep email, but make every message clearer.
Before assuming the fabric's the problem, consider that it may be what makes the whole thing work.
P.S. How did I get myself out of this pickle? A friendly station manager with an angle grinder cut the awning frame off the van.
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