Looking at what we usually avoid

There’s a moment that comes up often in my work.

It’s the pause before a business owner names the thing they’ve been avoiding. The process that never quite works. The tension their team feels. The client experience that doesn’t match their intentions. The service offering that once made sense but now feels heavy to carry.

Not because they don’t want things to be better.

But because slowing down to really look at what isn’t working can feel uncomfortable, even vulnerable.

In a fishbone analysis, we take time to sit with those places gently. We look together at the client perspective, the employee perspective, internal processes, and service offerings. Not to judge or diagnose, but to understand. To see the full picture instead of just reacting to symptoms.

Awareness can feel heavy at first. It asks us to be honest about friction and pain points that have likely been there for a while. Many business owners worry that focusing on these areas will feel discouraging, or that naming them somehow means they’ve failed.

That’s not how I experience this work.

What I see, again and again, is relief. A quiet shift that happens once things are spoken out loud. When what’s been living in someone’s head finally has shape, language, and context. When challenges stop feeling personal and start feeling workable.

We don’t leave the room stuck in what’s hard. We leave with clarity. With confidence that these areas can change. With a clear, realistic plan for how to move forward, whether that’s with my support or on their own.

My role is simply to be a steady partner in the conversations that are easy to postpone. To help create a space where it’s safe to look honestly, and then translate that awareness into something usable.

Avoiding the hard parts doesn’t make them go away.

But facing them with support often changes how heavy they feel.

Warmly,

Jazmin Russell