Check Engine Light

Cruising with the Check Engine Light On

Picture this: You’re driving your car, windows down, caffeine in hand, and that playlist hitting just right. Everything's running smooth. Until it isn't. That pesky orange check engine light comes on.

Now, most of us don’t immediately swerve into the nearest repair shop for a quick pitstop. We do the adult thing. We squint at the light, give it a light pat like to express some acknowledgement, and keep driving. Because obviously, if the engine really needed checking, it would say something in all caps.

That tiny orange icon is the MVP of metaphors for how businesses, and, let's be honest, humans in general, deal with early signs of trouble, not with urgency; but with optimism. The kind of optimism that once led someone to say, “It’s just a little iceberg.”

Why the Small Stuff Never Feels Urgent

There’s something about subtlety that makes us want to ignore it. If an issue doesn’t come with sirens or an all-company Slack meltdown, we assume it's optional. Optional like flossing, or the gym membership we swore we'd cancel. All that optional type of stuff that inevitably leads to a status “too late to salvage” so lets just do damage control. Super!

The check engine light isn’t dramatic. It’s passive-aggressive. It shows up, doesn’t say much, and silently judges your every mile. Which makes it eerily similar to that voice in the back of our heads that says, “Hey, maybe we should check in on that team dynamic everyone’s pretending is fine.”

We convince ourselves the system still works. The car’s moving. Revenue’s coming in. Morale isn’t technically on fire. And that’s when we’re most at risk, not because things are bad, but because they’re just okay enough to ignore.

The Real Reasons We Shrug It Off

Let’s pull over for a second and unpack why we, collectively, have the reaction time of a brick when early signals show up.

• Hope in disguise: We tell ourselves we’re being positive. That things will “smooth themselves out.” This is adorable. Awwwww. Oh. And dangerous.
  
  

• Avoiding emotional paperwork: Because addressing issues means meetings. And emotions. And potentially admitting we should’ve done something six months ago. Ain't nobody got time for that!
  
  

• Attachment to ‘what used to work’: The older the process, the harder it is to challenge. Legacy systems are like that one friend from high school we keep around just because we’ve known them forever, even if they now believe the Earth is flat, hollow and filled to the brim with crunchy hazelnut spread.

Ignoring the engine light doesn’t mean it’s gone. It means we’re driving with less control and more bravado.

How Small Problems Go Full Supervillain

Minor issues don’t usually announce their glow-up into existential threats. They evolve in stages, starting as “just a weird sound” and ending in “A new transmission is how much?!”

In organizations, it’s the same script: A quiet drop in team morale becomes high turnover. A missed trend becomes a market you no longer understand. A “small” tech delay becomes a “why are our competitors light-years ahead?” situation.

AI, for example, didn’t knock. It just showed up in the house one day, sitting on the couch, learning everyone’s job in real time.

And we walked right past it like it was a coat rack.

Here’s the thing. It’s not just a flashy tool. It’s the new warning light. And it’s not subtle.

AI is showing us what can be automated, where our skill gaps live, and how fast the game is changing. It’s mapping out our vulnerabilities with the efficiency of a GPS that already knows where we’re stalling, even if we’re still debating the route.

But many of us are still “piloting” it. Tentatively. Like it’s a beta trend instead of a transformational shift.

It’s not here to replace everyone, but it will absolutely outpace anyone ignoring it. And in business, pace is power.

Receipts From Companies That Drove Past the Exit

History is filled with organizations who had the warning light blinking...and blinked right back.

• Borders: Outsourced their digital sales to Amazon. It’s like handing your rival the map to your secret lair and saying, “Be cool about it.”
  
  

• Xerox: Invented the future, then forgot to claim it. A tragic tale of being brilliant...and quiet about it.
  
  

• Laura Ashley: Ignored a changing customer base and got left behind by trends they once helped set

None of these were sudden implosions. They were slow fades, quiet enough to justify, loud enough to send everyone home.

So What’s Flickering in the Rearview?

The light might not be labeled. It might not come with a manual. But we usually know when something’s off.

Maybe it’s a team dynamic that’s tense-but-polite. A customer segment that's ghosting more than engaging. A “pilot project” that’s been idling since 2022. Or that AI conversation that keeps getting bumped to “next quarter.”

Early signs are inconvenient. But they’re generous. They show up quietly so we don’t have to learn the hard way.

Before We Break Down Entirely

We don’t need to panic. We just need to stop pretending caution lights are compliments.

If any of this sounds too familiar to ignore, we’ve created a keynote around this exact concept: How to spot trouble early and act before the stall. It’s got case studies, frameworks, and a little comedy (because panic without humor is just panic).

👉 Check it our keynote here

Because if something keeps blinking, it’s probably trying to help.