Do Your Systems Support or Sabotage You?

One of the tenets of coaching that I learned early on in my training is that the environment always wins. 

Basically from a coaching perspective, it means that if the systems or environment that are in place don’t support the changes you are trying to make, then it will be almost impossible for you to succeed in the transformation.

As an example, if you are trying to lose weight, but your partner or roommate continues to purchase powdered donuts and puts them in the pantry and you have to avoid those items every time you go into the pantry, at some point, your willpower (which is a finite resource) will give out, and you’ll give in to the temptation of those donuts.

On the flip side, systems and environments can also work for you. For instance, using that same example of staying healthy or losing weight - if you have a system where you meal prep every week and so it reduces the likelihood of you eating extra treats or an unplanned, unhealthy meal during the week because you’re exhausted - then your system can be working for you to help you achieve your goals. 

Now occasionally, we all slip up, so then it’s important to have a plan (or system) in place to give yourself some grace, acknowledge the blip, and get back on track. A blip can be a speed bump, it doesn’t have to be an uncontrollable slide down hill.

This week, I was also reminded of the systems and environments that matter in our workplaces. I recently read the new book “Speak Up Culture” by Stephen Shedletzky. He used to work with Simon Sinek, and has been a consultant and a thought leader for a long time. I built an interactive workshop that took some of these concepts, as well as built on research from Amy Edmondson on psychological safety and delivered it this week. 

In case you’re wondering, systems that can work for a company or against a company: how you treat people; the skills your managers have and your system for developing leaders; how decisions are made and communicated; how feedback is gathered and disseminated; how people feel when they take the risk to speak up and share their concerns, their ideas, and their mistakes. How you recognize and reward success and behaviors that contribute to success. How you build trust in a company matters.

These things are not just the good cultural things to do, they also increase profit and productivity. Rather than people worrying about how they hide a mistake, or hoarding information for their own power or insecurity, they focus on creating the best ideas together, on doing their jobs and they feel good doing it. Companies are more innovative and trustworthy - which research shows leads to 2.5 times more profitability and success.

One of the key takeaways from the book above, and one I think we can all relate to in our careers is that leadership is about behavior, not about titles. Although some leaders do have titles, not all do, and those who may have a leadership title or role are not always leaders. Leadership is a responsibility, a service to be given, and when done well, I think contributes to an environment or system that works for the company too. Which begs the question - what is the system that is supporting the leaders? How are you developing them? How are you coaching them? How can they ask for help? How can they communicate with upper management and how are you holding them accountable as well?

Culture is as much about the behaviors you tolerate as the behaviors you don’t. I hope that as we finish out 2023, and head into 2024, that you consider what are the environments and systems you want to be a part of, the non-negotiables for your behaviors and others’, and how you can create environments of success for yourself, for your team, and for your organization.