When Policies Tie Your Team’s Hands

Policies vs. People: When Kind Teams Can’t Fix Broken Systems

You know those days where you think you’re prepared for everything… and then life says, “Cute plan?”

That was me and my rental car.

I booked it months in advance. Easy, right? Except when we showed up, there were no cars. None. The solution? Drive ninety minutes through protests and game-day traffic to another branch that also didn’t have one. By the time we finally got behind the wheel, we’d lost three hours and most of our patience.

A few hours into the drive… the check-engine light pops on.

Enterprise says roadside will swap the car. Roadside says, “That’s not a thing we do,” and hangs up. The next branch is forty minutes out of our way, and surprise… no cars there either.

At this point I’m laughing that slightly-unhinged laugh where you either find the humor or lose your mind.

We hit AutoZone, scan the code (minor issue), call back home, and the local branch says, “Just keep driving it.” So we do. When we return the car, they waive a few fees, apologize, and honestly, they’re lovely humans.

And here’s the kicker… the people were amazing. The system was the problem.

The Moment It Clicked

You can have the kindest, hardest-working people in the world, but if your systems are broken, they’re set up to fail.

That local team cared. They wanted to help. But they couldn’t, because corporate policies had tied their hands.

And isn’t that exactly what happens inside dental practices every single day?

• Front desk teams that care deeply but can’t override an insurance restriction.

• Office managers that want to fix it but are trapped in approval loops.

• Leaders that mean well but don’t realize the very systems they’ve built are burning out their best people.

You can’t kindness your way out of a broken system. People create connection, empathy, and trust… but they can’t fix a process that’s designed to fail them.

If your team has to fight your systems to do their jobs, the system is the problem, not the people.

Final Thought:

Kindness can’t fix broken systems… but clarity can.

Empowered teams need permission and process. They need systems that trust them, tools that support them, and leaders who believe that when you build things right, the best people rise.

Because great people can’t thrive inside broken frameworks… no matter how hard they try.

If your kindest people are burning out trying to make broken systems work, it’s time to look at the framework, not the faces.

Let’s fix the system together: SKFPracticeSolutions.com