The deceptively simple filter that protects priorities and keeps teams focused on what matters. Not all problems are urgent. Not all problems are meaningful. This one question keeps teams from chasing noise, patching symptoms, or fixing things that don’t actually matter.

We’re all in a rush to do. Finish the work. Hit the target. Move on. A Harvard Business School study found that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of their day reflecting on what they learned performed 23% better than those who didn’t.

My friend Simon Dobbin, a film art director, had two weeks to turn an Olympic-sized swimming pool yellow for a key movie scene. He tried food dye, but the colour vanished in chlorinated water. It only worked in drinking water. He was stuck. He knew the chemicals were part of the problem, so asked someone the right knowledge and found the solution. It’s simple and surprising.

Quick fixes are tempting. A symptom shows up—missed deadlines, poor morale, low sales—and we rush to solve it. But treating symptoms is like taping over the check engine light. Creating valuable change starts with asking better questions.