Why Your Team Might Be Hiding Chocolates

There’s an old I Love Lucy episode that still gets laughs today. (Note: The image above is an AI generated interpretation of the story. See the original clip on YouTube)

Lucy and Ethel are working at a candy factory, wrapping chocolates as they come down a conveyor belt. At first, it’s fun. They’re confident. The task is manageable. But then the belt speeds up.

They start shoving chocolates in their hats, their mouths, their blouses—anywhere they can hide the evidence they can’t keep up. Their supervisor returns, sees no unwrapped chocolates, and orders the belt to go faster.

It’s funny—until you realize this is how too many of our teams feel at work.

Here’s the reality:
We are speeding up the conveyor belts in our organizations. Tasks are increasing. Deadlines are tighter. Resources haven’t changed. And just like Lucy and Ethel, many employees are smiling on the outside while internally hiding mistakes, masking burnout, or struggling in silence.

I’ve seen this up close. I’ve led high-performing teams that were drowning beneath the surface. The outputs looked fine, but the system was broken.

What Leaders Miss

1. Capacity isn’t infinite. You can’t keep adding work without adding time, training, or people.

2. Pacing is a leadership decision. Just because something can be done fast doesn’t mean it should be.

3. Success is often cosmetic. Don’t let the appearance of normalcy fool you. Teams can be compliant and still be collapsing.

4. Psychological safety is essential. If your team feels they must hide problems to avoid criticism, you won’t hear the truth until it’s too late.

This is where MACRO Leadership comes in. Under the Coach and Reflect steps, we ask:

• How are people actually doing?

• What’s working and what’s not?

• Are we setting expectations that our teams can realistically meet?

Try This With Your Team:
Ask them: “What’s our version of shoving chocolates in our hats right now?”
Be quiet and listen. Then slow the belt.

If we want innovation and sustainability, we can’t keep pretending we’re fine while the belt keeps speeding up. We need honest conversations and systemic fixes.

Download our free handout: The I Love Lucy Leadership Lesson in the Podcast Ep02 resources (https://www.engagedbydesign.com/blog-resources) to reflect on how overload shows up in your workplace, and what you can do to stop the chaos before it becomes a collapse.

It’s time to lead with compassion, clarity, and courage.

Let’s stop hiding the chocolates.