Cost cutting can backfire

Answer #10 to the question: Why are college costs soaring?

Trying to save some money can cost us more money in the long run. Cutting costs can backfire. Instead of reducing costs, the cost-saving measures increase the costs. Lots of colleges and universities are caught up in this pattern. The more they try to reduce the costs of attending college, the more their efforts end up raising tuition and student fees.

When a solution to a problem backfires and makes a bigger problem, we usually don't realize what is the real problem. We have in mind trying harder to get results, which only makes things worse. We don't see we are "part of the problem" and nothing we do will provide a real solution. It's as if we're trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on the flames. We're grabbing more beach towels to dry off when we're standing in the rain. We're driving the car faster when a tire has gone flat.

When we become"part of the solution", we stop trying harder and start trying smarter. We get the message in what's going wrong and try something different. We lose confidence in what we're trying to do and gain curiosity about what is missing or misperceived. We change our mind before we make another go at changing the world. That usually requires admitting a mistake, which can be very difficult to do.