The Triangle of Doom: Turning a Vicious Cycle into a Virtuous Cycle

In our Animal Advocacy Movement Benchmark Survey, we saw the same trap showing up across organizations: unmanageable workload + no deliberate development + no coverage or succession plan—the Triangle of Doom. Each piece fuels the others, making teams feel stuck. In this workshop, we’ll unpack how the Triangle of Doom forms, why it feels so trapping (even when everyone is working hard and deeply mission-driven), and how to start shifting it into a virtuous cycle—where clearer priorities, stronger learning habits, and better coverage reduce overload over time. You’ll walk away with tools to: Spot the Triangle of Doom patterns in your team before they become burnout and instability Reduce overload through clearer prioritization and “what we’re not doing” decisions Build lightweight development habits Create simple coverage plans so your org isn’t dependent on single points of failure