The Moment I Stopped Celebrating Heroes
Heroic coordination isn't the solution. It's masking the problem
The moment I stopped celebrating heroes was watching one burn out.
She was brilliant. Held a complex transformation together for two years through sheer force of will. Coordinated across silos. Translated between groups. Made things work that shouldn’t have worked.
Everyone depended on her. She was celebrated for it.
Then she left. Within six months, the thing collapsed.
That’s when I realised: her heroism wasn’t the solution. It was masking the problem.
The underlying infrastructure didn’t exist. The principles weren’t clear enough for distributed judgment. The systems didn’t enable independent action. So everything flowed through her — a human switchboard holding it together.
When the switchboard left, the system failed.
Now when I see heroic coordination, I don’t celebrate it. I ask: what’s missing underneath? What infrastructure would make this heroism unnecessary? What principles would let people make good decisions without checking with the coordinator?
Heroes are often genuinely impressive. But needing them is a sign that something structural is broken.
The goal isn’t finding better heroes. It’s building something that doesn’t need them.