Organization Development Community of Practice

Systems Over Symptoms

Diagnosing and Resolving Structural Friction

with Matt Fulmer

Are you tired of playing whack-a-mole with organizational problems? When budgets blow up, teams complain, or projects stall, the instinct is often to point fingers or panic-order another training session. But the real culprit is usually hiding in the workflow.

"Systems Over Symptoms" shifts your focus from reactive firefighting to real, diagnostic problem-solving. This session will help you look past the daily noise to pinpoint the actual bottlenecks in your capacity, competency, and systems.
In this session, you will learn how to:

• Spot the Real Friction: Stop treating surface-level symptoms and start identifying the broken incentives and workflows actually causing the failure.

• Stop Being an Order-Taker: Transition from simply filling training requests to acting as a strategic architect who uses data to guide stakeholders.

• Ditch the "Easy Button": Learn how to move your organization out of chaotic survival mode and into meaningful, friction-reduced progress.

Stop treating the symptoms. Let's fix the system.

About Your Facilitator:

Matt Fulmer is an instructional designer/learning and development professional who serves as the Director of Instructional Design at the Texas Association of School Business Officials, a nonprofit organization supporting public schools.

Matt believes that love of learning must be inspired and strives to create learning experiences that are both engaging and experiential, with the overarching objective of inspiring and encouraging true self-directed learners.

He began his professional journey as higher education faculty and transitioned to professional education. Matt holds a master’s degree in digital media from Goddard College, and recently completed an MS in Organizational Leadership at St. Edward’s University.