Structure Influences Behavior

In systems thinking we often explore structure in a system. We want to see the various factors that are keeping the system in line. We want to see what exists that promotes the system and works to maintain it.

The other day I was at work, frustrated with the latest problem. We were trying to develop several of our employees. We saw potential in them and wanted to improve their leadership capabilities. This would allow them to take on more important work.

We knew going in that many of these individuals had limited leadership experience. But we saw great potential in them. We decided that we needed to build up their leadership skills to help the company continue to grow.

After several weeks, we ran into a problem. Initially, we thought the problem was that these individuals were not capable of taking on more responsibility. But this was unacceptable to us.

But then I started to realize something. There was a very clear pattern here. The pattern was similar, regardless of what person we were looking at.

Then, it hit me. The problem was not with the individual. The problem was with me!

I started to realize that the failure to grow was completely my responsibility. I was doing what I thought was the best way to help them grow but was, in fact, limiting their ability to move forward.

At first it was difficult to accept. But the more I explored this, the more I saw the pattern emerge. First, we would identify someone with potential. Then we would meet with them and start to coach them up.

As we did this, we would start to pull away some of their responsibilities. This would give them time for higher priority items. We would meet regularly to work through any challenges.

But the problem was that we are a growing company. While this is a great thing, it means that there are always more tasks that appear. While it used to take us 35 hours per week to do something, now took 50 hours a week.

We would often miss this because we would split the 50 hours amongst three or four individuals. But each person would be doing more and more.

Plus, there are many things that aren’t part of our normal measurements. When a problem or error occurs, the process to fix it depends on the issue. It could be a quick, easy fix. But more often it involves diving into see what happened and then plan the best way to correct it.

So, the structures were putting enormous pressure on these individuals. They were adding to their normal duties. Even though we would pull some aspects away from them, they were still very busy.

Adding on these responsibilities meant that they were getting completely overwhelmed. We missed it because we didn’t realize the extent that some of these things had grown. We overlooked it because they did such a good job keeping up with them.

But we reached the point that was too much. When this happened the individual struggled. They would miss key aspects of the tasks they needed to do. They would get frustrated and bitter. They would push tasks to other employees without proper training.

I realized this problem was solely my problem and not their issue was when I saw the pattern. It wasn’t one individual. It seemed like everyone we pinned as having potential went through this process. All started to struggle.

The pattern continued. Because they struggled and we were all so busy, we didn’t address their ability to prioritize. We also didn’t convey that they needed to communicate with us when this happened. We could jump in and make some changes, alleviating their duties so they could focus on learning new, higher-level skills.

It is easy to point the finger. In this structure, the natural thing to do was to blame the individual. We could easily point out their errors. We can see where they struggle.

But the outcome we are driving for isn’t a bunch of defeated employees that can’t take the next step in their career. The goal is to get them to do higher-level tasks. These continue to grow, and we need to have employees in key roles managing these tasks.

This means that the problem isn’t them. The problem is me. The problem is that I have to change how we develop these key individuals. We need to give them a better chance at success.

Peter Senge talks about this in his book The Fifth Discipline. He says, “Different people in the same structure tend to produce qualitatively similar results. When there are problems, or performance fails to live up to what is intended, it is easy to find someone or something to blame. But, more often than we realize, systems cause their own crises, not external forces or individuals’ mistakes.”

In other words, I created systems that were leading to failure. We weren’t developing our people the way we needed to. We built ineffective structures.

The good thing is that when you realize that 100% of the problem is you, then you have 100% the ability to change it. Blaming others gives away our ability to improve the situation. But owning the mistakes means owning the solution.

The good thing is that once we realized the true system problem, we addressed the system. We dove in and explored what was causing this and how to remedy it.

It turned out that a lot of the issues stemmed from the employee wanting to step up. They didn’t want to look weak so whenever someone asked them to do something, they took it on.

But when 5 different people asked them for help, they couldn’t complete it all. They would then take on the task from the loudest person. They would prioritize based on who gave them something recently. Or, they would just do whatever they needed to in order to avoid getting yelled at for not completing their task. But over time this meant missing key aspects of their job.

We fixed this by taking several different angles. We changed some of their support duties. We used other employees to take on several tasks. We helped to prioritize the most important tasks from the lessor ones.

We were able to see our mistakes by looking at the patterns. This presented structures that we created. But these structures were limiting. They were creating a system that was ineffective.

By seeing this we were able to change. We corrected several areas. We started to see these individuals grow and flourish. Once we removed the limiting elements, they were able to step up and help the organization grow.

As Senge said, “Different people in the same structure tend to produce qualitatively similar results.” When you see many people fail in a system you control, take ownership and fix the system. Notice the patterns. Understand the structures. This gives a great deal of power and control over the systems that will dictate success or failure.