A good friend of mine was driving down the road last week when black smoke began to pour out of his tailpipe, a good indication that all was not well under the hood. His truck sputtered as far as the nearest mechanic, where it died.

How do you think the mechanic diagnosed the problem? I doubt he replaced the exhaust pipe. I’m sure he looked under the truck’s hood. Even I, as one whose mechanical knowledge is severely limited, know that the exhaust pipe coughing black smoke was merely the harbinger of bad news, not the problem’s cause.

I raise this illustration to highlight important considerations for human relationships—particularly when we are committed to helping improve the health of another. We often only recognize and therefore occupy ourselves with symptoms of problems. The symptoms, like the black plume trailing behind my friend’s truck, can be a smoke screen, blocking our view from the core problem.

Our federal government embodies this phenomenon when it channels millions of tax payer dollars into numerous funding streams with the aim to deter particular behaviors: alcohol prevention, drug prevention, obesity prevention and so on. Programs that target behaviors are, by definition, addressing a particular symptom. This does not mean, of course, such programs are indifferent to the causes of such behaviors. And I am not advocating that we only treat the cause and ignore symptoms, many of which are quite harmful. But what’s critical is that the people, programs, and organizations honing in on these behaviors are mindful of the common sources from which these behaviors spring.

We can describe the source in a number of ways: lack of self-worth, negligible future orientation, and the like. Treating the root causes of destructive behavior, which reside at the core of our being, require a deeper human-to-human connection in which trust is the bonding agent. I hope to refresh your resolve and remind you that who you are as a unique person, not the program or protocol you implement, is the most potent element of your work.