Systems and mindsets

Do what you’ve always done, and you’ll get what you’ve always got. Think about changing your systems and mindset. 

Man, I’ve felt like a fraud for the last month. I work with leaders on strategic focus, supporting them to spend their time and energy more effectively instead of working themselves into the ground for nothing… and I’ve been working far too many hours. An unsustainable number of hours. 

I’ve been travelling and working hard, kicking off exciting new programmes and spending lots of time with clients setting up training, mentoring, and development for 2020. My practice manager made an exciting move to Korea in January, which left a gap before my new practice manager started. In the gap, I was busy handling the back and front end and getting my new manager up to speed.  

Two important tools

I’ve been working crazy hours, impacting my sleep, family time and balance… and what a gift it’s been. I haven’t had much choice when it comes to managing, but I do have two important tools that I have the power to choose and change. They’re critical parts of my toolbox – and you have them, too, in your life and organisation. 

1. Mindset – Healthy framing and renewed intention that this is not my default pace 

2. Systems - Visibility of hidden friction points 

Mindset 

The funny thing is, I haven’t felt resentful or negative about how much time I’ve been working because I’m so excited about everything I’m working on. I’ve also never been more aware of how unsustainable this pace is– so I set up my intention and accountability to suit. I sat down with my three girls a few weeks ago and explained that for seven weeks, I would have to break our rules and boundaries about work. I asked them for their understanding and support, created some accountability for some new temporary boundaries, and agreed on an endpoint. With my kids, clients, and team, I know that my reputation is built on what I do, not what I say I will do – and I’m committed to keeping that promise. 

The value of that mindset – excitement instead of overwhelm, creating intention and setting boundaries has changed my experience, even though the pressure has been the same. It’s like chalk and cheese compared to other periods where I’ve run on fumes, gin and bananas, until I’ve crashed, burned, and started all over again! 

Systems 

Temporarily managing all my practice administration has sparked an intense focus on how my business runs. I’ve had to streamline my systems, find and eliminate friction points and set up better, more consistent ways to manage our work.  

Could I have done that when things were calmer instead? Sure, but I didn’t.  

And I wouldn’t, for a couple of reasons. 

“You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits 

By their very nature, systems are largely invisible – even when broken. When you’re a busy senior leader, you’re removed from the mechanics of how your business runs and it’s easy for issues, delays and inconsistencies to fly under the radar. There’s no burning platform there for you – but there’s plenty of fires burning elsewhere! 

Our goals are born in the boardroom, but they die in the backroom. 

Systems are often the secret ingredient to real progress. Our goals might be born in the boardroom, but they die in the backroom. When our delegations, software tools, financial rules, policies, customer service or IT systems get in the way, progress lasts about as long as our motivation does. When one dies, the other isn’t far behind. 

Not only are they invisible, we don’t actually want to see them. We rarely have the push to transform, when things are going fine. Growth comes from challenges, changes and breaking points – which is just as true for organisations, and teams as it is for us in our personal lives. 

Not many of our important catalysts feel good. Regeneration and transformation demand pain. Think about the hardest and most important decisions you’ve had to make – relationships, job changes, health issues. How much pain did you absorb before you finally took action?  

Systems and mindset at work 

The same principles apply in large teams. I’m working with two public sector organisations that are facing quite opposite challenges, but I'm applying exactly the same two tools I’ve pulled out for my seven-week sprint: changing mindsets and enhancing systems.  

Problem 1: No money 

The first team is a Council in Melbourne, grappling with a funding slash. The Victorian government announced a 2% rates cap on local government for the next financial year, which was half a point lower than initially expected. Eesh. Councils across the state are left reeling as they work out how to deliver on ambitious community strategies, demanding work programmes and organisational goals inside a smaller envelope.  

Impossible task? Maybe… or an exciting opportunity. 

We’re choosing to treat it as the latter. Finally, the executive team have the burning platform for change they’ve been looking for, to mobilise Councillors and officers to make bold, long overdue trade-offs and changes to how Council runs and delivers services.  

Problem 2: All the money 

The second team is a central government agency in NZ that recently received a huge funding announcement. That's a nice problem to have, right?  

Except, delivering on a massive new programme of work inside an already stretched-to-capacity work environment will require much more than funding to make it possible. Adding more money without changing how they do business would be like pouring water into a sieve.  

Realising this, we’ve put our heads together and kicked off a ‘fast forward’ programme with managers and experts across the business. Fast Forward is all about delivery acceleration through systems and mindset - making the boat go faster by empowering people to look at their challenges differently, identify bright spots and find concrete, specific ways to do more, faster and better.  

As the old cliché goes, necessity is the mother of invention. When we face constraints, we tend to make better decisions because we engage a different part of our brain.  

Do what you’ve always done, get what you’ve always got 

I recently discovered the phrase ‘amor fati’. Coined by Nietzsche, amor fati is Latin for a love of one’s fate. I’m so into this. This powerful phrase encapsulates the idea that we need not just to manage adversity as it presents but to love it—to embrace the opportunity presented by everything that happens to us, whether it looks positive, negative, or neutral. 

In psychology, this is captured in the literature on post-traumatic growth. Some people seem to not just cope well with adversity but thrive. Death, loss and disability can break us - but some people flourish, finding meaning in their experience and applying lessons for the future that improve their lives. 

In economics and politics, Nicholas Taleb talks about being antifragile rather than strong. Antifragility is about building the capacity to improve thanks to external shocks, progressively increasing our resilience to manage the next crisis. Because make no mistake, there will inevitably be another one. 

I recently spoke with a senior leader at an NZ university who mentioned that the coronavirus had derailed their strategy execution for the coming year. “Once things get back to normal, though, we’ll be back on track….”  

Awkward, right? The pandemic will end, but the next crisis will replace it. A funding change, an unexpected competitor, a natural disaster or a scandal.  

Because real success is not coping with change, or managing the fallout well.  

Real success is succeeding because of our challenges rather than despite them. 

Real success is succeeding because of our challenges rather than despite them 

If your team is managing unexpected change, grappling with funding constraints – or announcements! – or struggling to get plans and projects moving, take heart. Rather than questioning the quality of your leadership, the motivation of your people, or the value of your goals, try looking at the way you work and think. 

Ask yourself these questions: 

• What is the opportunity inside this issue? 

• What invisible or ignored issues has this brought to light? 

• What processes and systems are making things harder? 

• What is working well, that we can do more of? 

• Who makes decisions and where are the potential bottlenecks? 

• Where can bureaucracy be minimised? 

When it comes to systems, a clear understanding of what needs to shift – and clear accountability and timeframes for changing them - can be the difference between a strategy that flies and a strategy that flops.  

Recognising and making that shift is often down to our mindset—how we understand and harness our response to change—and notice our resistance to improvement until there’s no other option! 

In 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene argues that we should aim to “accept the fact that all events occur for a reason and that it is within your capacity to see this reason as positive.” 

Skeptical? Fair enough.  

But it’s happening to you anyway, so you might as well.