Problems rarely reach leadership at the size they started. As information climbs the hierarchy, its texture flattens, its urgency softens, and the detail that made it actionable disappears. By the time a problem is big enough to travel on its own, it is big enough to hurt. Execution has to move friction earlier than that.
What does not travel
Small friction does not travel upward on its own. A recurring workaround, a handoff that now takes twice as long, a quiet dependency on one overloaded person: each is easy to absorb locally and easy to miss globally. The organization is talking, but at a volume the executive layer cannot hear until it is a crisis.
Make friction cheap to report
The fix is to make surfacing friction safe and cheap. A team that is punished for raising problems will hide them until they explode. A team that is thanked for early signal will give you the lead time to act. Preserving alignment during execution means keeping the channel open, so the small signal reaches attention while it is still small.
Attack it, do not absorb it
When friction surfaces, the reflex is to absorb it with more effort. That hides the constraint again. The builder's move is to treat recurring friction as data about a condition and address the condition, not to quietly pay the tax another week.
Daily preservation holds a quarter together. Once, mid-cycle, you should check the conditions formally. That is the next lesson.
How this fits the system
The Mission Board only helps if problems reach it at the size they start, before altitude hides them.