Getting To The “Root” Of The Problem
Jan 18, 2026
This spring, I learned a lesson—right in our garden. My wife has worked hard on her raised garden beds for years, and this year she discovered something troubling: quaking aspen roots had grown up through the bottom of the boxes. If you’ve dealt with aspens, you know they’re relentless. These roots don’t just go away—you can’t snip them and move on. They grow back stronger unless you deal with them at the source.
To fix it, we’ll have to pull out all the soil, dig deep, remove the roots, and treat the area to prevent regrowth. It's not a quick job. It’ll take hours, maybe days. But without it, the garden will struggle to thrive.
And it got me thinking—how often do we treat business problems the same way? A recurring issue pops up in our appraisal work or office systems, and we slap a quick fix on it: skip the spellcheck, patch the process, deal with the same error again and again. We’re busy, I get it. But surface fixes won’t hold.
Sometimes we need to pause and ask: What’s really going on here? What’s beneath the problem I keep dealing with?
Dig out the root. It may take time upfront, but it will save time—and headaches—down the road. Whether it’s a broken system, underperforming team member, or inefficient workflow, stop skipping over the real issue.
Trust me, your “garden” will thank you.
Check out The Appraiser Coach Podcast for more info on this topic:
