The Problem with Solutions: Wing Tsun, Wisdom, and the Power of Perception
There are two phrases that are often bandied around in business and leadership circles:
“There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”
And
“Today’s solutions are tomorrow’s problems.”
They’re frequently used as to explain the complexity of life, or as justification for why things are hard to change. But the question is - how useful are they?
There’s wisdom in simplicity, but only if you understand the context. Without it, such phrases can become philosophical cul-de-sacs - half-truths that legitimise cynicism or avoid responsibility. The real value in such phrases lies not in repeating them, but in understanding when and how to apply them. From a Wing Tsun perspective, knowledge only becomes wisdom when it's embodied – forming part of the way that you navigate your way through life.
What I would like to offer here, therefore, is a way of understanding these sayings that opens up more possibilities. A way of seeing when these phrases hold true, and when they don’t. While they may reflect how things often are, they do not represent the full range of what’s possible - especially if we learn to see more deeply, think more holistically, and design systems more wisely.
Because there are, in fact, solutions. And there are ways to prevent tomorrow’s problems today - if you can perceive the system clearly enough.
Understanding the Context: Predictable and Preventable
The Predictable-Preventable Matrix categorises problems along two axes: Predictability (Predictable to Unpredictable) and Preventability (Preventable to Unpreventable).
We often treat problems as inevitable when in fact they are neither unpredictable nor unpreventable. They are simply unseen - hidden by our biases, culture, or systemic design.
Many of the challenges we face - whether in relationships, businesses, or institutions - are entirely foreseeable. But we don’t see them, because we haven’t been trained to perceive the pattern, only the symptom. If we train ourselves, and our team, to look beyond the obvious, we can see the signs of dysfunction early. We can structure our systems, cultures, and conversations to avoid problems before they occur.
From my perspective, the majority of our struggles fall into what I call the Predictable-Preventable Matrix -the realm of problems that were always going to happen because the system was never designed to stop them.
We often blame individuals for systemic failures. A person “messes up” at work; a partner “lets us down.” But more often than not, the issue lies in the structure such as unclear expectations, misaligned incentives or poor communication channels. The point of Wing Tsun is to increase awareness so you can perceive patterns through heightened perception before they become pain.
A skilled practitioner does not simply respond; they anticipate. The same applies to leadership. The master crafts not just action, but structure - systems that pre-empt chaos, and frameworks that allow adaptability.
To be clear, trade-offs exist. And solutions can cause new problems. But often that’s because we haven’t seen far enough ahead, wide enough around or had a deep enough understanding of the whole system. With better structure, wiser rhythm, and deeper awareness, you can mitigate or even entirely redesign many of those effects.
Predictable-Preventable Mindset
The predictable-preventable matrix has an additional crucial dimension to it - that of mindset. Our ability to learn from adverse situations, be resilient and even use them as a springboard for future success - requires taking a lot of the emotional stress and overload out of it. Often the shock of the problem is worse than the problem itself. The predictable-preventable mindset comes at both ends - at the beginning and at the aftermath of situations.
When I help design systems, consult for companies, or even train martial art teachers, the principle that I work from is that everything is in our power to predict and prevent. Whilst this is certainly not true - it is how we want to think and act. Adopting this mindset empowers deliberate action and deeper reflection. An example of this is the scaling/quality and control challenge. As companies scale regionally or internationally, they inevitable lose quality and control in various aspects of the business (the centralised/decentralised debate). However, that doesn’t mean you should accept it. Instead, you want to think that it is preventable to work through the best, enduring solutions for it.
On the flipside when we face true challenges that aren’t preventable, then we can accept them with kindness (to ourselves and others) as we had given our best attempt at the time, move fast with the next steps and learn and improve our systems. A simple example of this is that it may be unpredictable and unpreventable that someone moves away from a company (for instance their spouse takes an unexpected job in another country). However, what you want to do is design it so that no-one you want to stay leaves for anything other than an external, unchangeable factor. This is an example of the famous saying 'culture eats strategy for breakfast.’
The Illusion of Control: Mind-Led Laws and Systemic Blindness
Those two sayings “no solutions, only trade-offs,” and “today’s solutions are tomorrow’s problems” often arise from a world dominated by the head - by logic, rationality, and abstraction. But many of the problems we face are caused by overuse of the rational mind. And as Einstein noted, you cannot solve a problem from the same level of thinking that created it. Here, the problem is not rationality per se; the problem is domination by it.
They belong to a category I think of as the laws of mind-led control. They are the natural result of trying to impose will upon systems that are more complex, interconnected, and alive than we can grasp from the intellect alone. The Law of Unintended Consequences, coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in the 1930s, expresses this precisely. It doesn’t mean we should never act. It means that acting from ignorance of the whole always carries cost. These phrases are useful not because they are cynical - but because they remind us of the limits of force and foresight without deeper connection.
This is why the path of Wing Tsun, and indeed the path of Daoism and Zen, is not about dominating reality - but flowing with it. It’s not that we’re powerless. It’s that power emerges from alignment, not control.
Wing Tsun teaches us that being smart is not the same as being wise. And wisdom requires more than intellect. It requires wholeness. In Wing Tsun, we speak of the Three Shen - the head, the heart, and the gut. Each has its own form of intelligence. Neuroscience now confirms what Chinese philosophy taught centuries ago: there are neurons in the heart and gut as well as the brain. Wisdom is a matter of integration - not dominance.
This framework maps beautifully onto the Enneagram, which I often use alongside Wing Tsun to help people understand themselves and others more deeply. In the Enneagram, types are also grouped by dominant centre:
The head types (5, 6, 7) – tend to lead with thinking, fear management, planning
The heart types (2, 3, 4) – navigate through emotion, identity, and image
The gut types (8, 9, 1) – rely on instinct, control, and doing
Now, we all have access to all three centres. But we each tend to lead with one. And once you begin to understand this, you also begin to see how others think, feel, and act differently—not wrongly, but differently. That’s where empathy and team flow begins.
So, in both Wing Tsun and the Enneagram, the journey is the same: to expand from your centre of comfort and build coherence across all three. This is how we escape the trap of head-only problem solving—and create solutions that feel right, act swiftly, and think clearly. Without that alignment, we may think fast—but we don’t see fully.
When we act from unity—of head, heart, and gut—when we move with perception rather than against it, we do not eliminate uncertainty, but we do reduce unnecessary suffering. We learn to dance with complexity instead of fighting it.
AI, for all its brilliance, also struggles with this. Without the heart’s values and the gut’s instincts, it risks offering “solutions” that are technically correct and humanly disastrous. So too in our lives: when we operate only from the head, we may find answers—but we miss meaning. And meaning is what sustains both action and alignment.
Externally, the same applies to teams. In leadership, we often select people who are “like us”—who think the way we do, act the way we would and validate our worldview. But just as in Wing Tsun, where your partner's difference sharpens your own development, in teams we need complementary minds. The most successful CEOs I’ve worked with were those who learned to trust the parameters they didn’t immediately understand—the ones brought by others.
3. From Self to System: Team Alignment and Organisational Flow
Once we begin to see these dynamics within ourselves, the natural extension is to apply them to our teams. Wisdom must move from the individual to the system. It’s not just about how you think—it’s about how you design your teams and organisations to include different ways of knowing.
Because just as we tend to trust our own dominant centre, we also tend to surround ourselves with those who resemble us—people who process the world in the same way.
This is deeply human. It feels easier and efficient. But it’s often a trap.
The most effective leaders I’ve met are those who value cognitive and energetic diversity—who learn to appreciate what they do not instinctively understand. A gut-dominant founder may struggle to comprehend the methodical scepticism of a head-dominant partner. A heart-led leader may see rational dissent as disloyalty. But in truth, these differences are not weaknesses—they are different parameters of perception. And together, they provide a fuller picture.
One of the biggest risks in leadership is the echo chamber. We surround ourselves with people who think like us, and we call it alignment. But true alignment does not come from sameness. It comes from shared direction through difference. This is why I value leadership models like “disagree and commit”. It creates space for diverse views, but insists on unified motion. And it echoes ancient Chinese wisdom about creating structured responsibility, trust and movement:
Confucius spoke of 群而不党 — “unity without factions” and
Zen reminds us of 和而不同 — “harmony does not require uniformity”
4. System Design: From Pattern to Practice
In my work as a Chief Culture and Mindset Officer, I observed that many cultural breakdowns were predictable—because they were built into the system. So I began designing interventions that could address these disconnects early:
Buddy Days to reconnect leadership with frontline experience
Monday 15-minute briefings to maintain direction and morale
Town Halls and Community Forums to surface truth and build shared understanding
These weren’t HR niceties. They were strategic tools—designed to prevent the problems I saw coming. The same principle applies in Wing Tsun: you don’t wait to be hit. You feel the pattern, and you intercept it before it escalates. In leadership the same skille applies - perception, rhythm, and design.
5. Trade-Offs: Don’t Let Them Shrink Your Vision
I speak about trade-offs a lot. They matter. Every decision has a consequence. Every priority means something else must wait.
So there’s value in these sayings. They help leaders recognise complexity. But the danger is in taking them as destiny. Trade-offs are real, but they are also contextual. They don’t happen all the time, and they’re not always fixed. Many trade-offs arise from poor design, not natural law. More importantly, they should never be used to diminish your vision.
There are two real risks here:
One, that you compromise your vision too early—settling for less because you believe trade-offs are inevitable.
Two, that you become demoralised when your vision meets resistance—assuming that means it was flawed.
But wisdom is not giving up. It is preparing for the worst while creating the best.
6. Competitive Advantage: Speed of Learning, Speed of Change
This brings us back to the Predictable–Preventable Matrix. It is not just a philosophical idea—it is a competitive advantage. In martial arts, speed of motion is crucial. But just as important is the speed of learning. How fast can you absorb, adapt, and apply? How fast can you spot the patterns—not just what your opponent is doing, but why?
In business, we speak of innovation and scalability. But both rest on the same principle: rapid learning and rapid execution. And that is only possible when individuals and teams can move beyond their preferences—when the gut can listen to the head, the heart can hold space for logic, and the head can make room for instinct.
That is why systems thinking and embodied awareness must go together. Structure without feeling becomes bureaucracy. Feeling without structure becomes chaos. Wing Tsun teaches us that the body must align first before power can flow. So too in life.
Final Reflections
After all the above, so where do we land? If you are a leader, a practitioner, or a seeker, I invite you to reflect on the following:
Where are the predictable and preventable problems in your life or organisation?
Are you acting from your dominant centre—or integrating head, heart, and gut?
Are your systems designed for inclusion, rhythm, and truth?
Are you shrinking your vision, or preparing yourself more wisely?
Do you have a learning rhythm—or just a reaction pattern?
Sifu