It is tempting to treat a delay as a nuisance standing between a decision and its result, something to be shortened or ignored. In most systems the delay is doing more than that. It decides how people respond, and the response decides what happens next.
When the effect of an action arrives late, the natural reaction is to act again. The second action lands on top of the first, which was already on its way. By the time both arrive, the correction is larger than anyone intended, and a new correction begins in the other direction.
Overshoot
This is the familiar pattern of overshoot and swing. It does not require anyone to behave badly. It only requires a delay that is longer than the patience of the people waiting for it.
It only requires a delay that is longer than the patience of the people waiting for it.
Working with it
The practical response is rarely to remove the delay, which is often impossible. It is to know roughly how long it is, to act in smaller steps, and to wait for each step to land before judging it. That is less satisfying than decisive action. It is also how many systems are steered without being shaken.