As I further consider the problems related to the domino effect of poor leadership, I am thinking about the antecedents to big problems that occur. These are some that I've identified.
Dishonesty
When groups act with dishonesty, problems occur. Why are people dishonest? Dishonesty can occur because people are trying to hide their mistakes, insecurities, sloth, or inability to do the job. Dishonesty can also occur when people are trying to manipulate others or an institution for their own gain. Dishonesty confounds the good work possible because people are not working with accurate facts or understanding as to how a system works.
Neglect
Neglect is another antecedent of failure. For example, when people neglect to review finances on a regular basis, they neglect an important ingredient with regard to running groups of any size. When financial reviews don't happen, that leaves greater room for cheating and mistakes, and that cheating and error can add up to a lot of money over time. That cheating and error can also support individual's bad habits of stealing or misusing funds. Neglect of any organization's systems and environments can lead to irreversible errors with regard to accidents, conflict, rot, and crime.
Fear
Sometimes problems persist in organizations because people are too afraid to speak up. That fear serves to heighten issues rather than solve issues. When you speak up about problems in positive ways early on, you save your organizations bigger problems later.
Hearsay and prejudice
Poor organizations often allow prejudice and hearsay to grow without change. For example, at times, leaders in organizations may have prejudicial attitudes towards workers of particular gender, culture, class, lifestyle, role, or personality. Those prejudices may result in unfair and unjust work conditions. Issues like this lead to an organization's demise over time.
Lack of training and skill
When people in organizations lack the training and skill to do the essential jobs of the organization, organizations of any kind suffer.
Ambition over mission
Some leaders are more concerned with their personal triumph than the success of an organization with regard to its mission. When ambition trumps mission, you have big problems, but when ambition feeds mission, you can have great success.
Cronyism
Sadly many organizations suffer because people choose their friends and family members to lead or do the organization's work rather than skilled professionals.
Wasted time and priorities
Sometimes systems spend too much time focused on the wrong priorities. This is a waste of an organization's capacity.
Few problems simply arise out of nowhere. Most problems have deep roots that develop over time. To truly solve the problems that exist, you have to take a hard look at an organization's history as well as the present, and begin to clean up the problem there.