Don’t work harder. Fix the system
How to build better systems to get better results
You’ve probably felt it before: the system doesn’t work, the processes aren’t optimized… and yet, there you are, working longer hours, trying to hit your goals. And nothing changes. Why do so many organizations repeat this pattern, believing that more effort will fix a broken system?
Like it or not, every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If it generates inefficiency, frustration, or stagnation, it’s not by accident. It’s because that’s how it was built—or how it has evolved. And what is a system? A system is any process designed to achieve a goal. It could be a sales funnel, a back-office structure, a content creation workflow, or even the way meetings are run. And here’s the key: every product designed to execute a process is, in itself, a system.
A common mistake is compensating for a broken system with individual effort. That only leads to burnout. Users end up frustrated trying to achieve outcomes with poorly designed processes. So if you notice that a product drains your team’s time, energy, or resources, the solution is not to ask for more effort… It’s to redesign the system.
How do you improve a system? The first step is identifying leverage points—those small changes that generate big results. And how do you find them? By observing. By identifying the parts of the workflow that cause the most frustration. This requires a critical eye, because many organizational habits persist simply because they’ve always been there.
That’s why changing a system isn’t just about redesigning processes. It’s about redesigning motivations. And that shift doesn’t come from imposing solutions—it comes from understanding what drives people. Only by listening to their motivations can we redesign systems, products, and workflows that help them achieve results with minimal effort.
So, are you ready to fix the system?