Most of the solutions I discuss involve processes, products, and systems. However, thorough analysis and improvement efforts should also address the working environment.

One important aspect is the working environment of the employees. By employing the proper techniques throughout each engagement, each employee will be able to provide their most effective contributions in a safe and supportive environment.

Analysts and leaders must also understand the wider competitive and regulatory environment of the industry, the society, and the economy at large.

Understand that people work best when they see that their efforts contribute meaningfully to the greater goal, and that their time isn't being wasted. Cake parties and foosball tables are less improtant than ensuring people can work effectively, apply their best efforts, and continue to learn and grow.

Gino Wickman's books on the Entrepeneurial Operating System (EOS) include some great material on how to evaluate and support employees, make meetings productive, and maintain a healthy and productive work environment.

The physical environment should be considered as well, but the problems should be understood correctly. The current push for wind and solar power are resulting in greater costs and negative side-effects like dead birds and toxic chemical waste. Western societies are being admonished to make do with suboptimal items like biodegradable straws (that melt, get mushy, and generally don't work well), to reduce the supposed piles of waste in the oceans, even though the ten rivers that dump the most waste are in Asia and Africa, home to societies that have not yet gotten sufficiently rich. Environmental concerns should be based on helping people get rich by consuming more energy and cleaner materials, and not by reducing their number and limiting their economic prospects.

As the great Thomas Sowell often observes, "There are no solutions, only tradeoffs."