Work the System summary

Nearly everyone has at some stage sunk to a point where they felt that they’d never achieve their dreams because the game is simply rigged against them. This mind-set ensures that you’ll never get the change you want!

It’s true: no one person has total control over all the systems that affect her life. There’s nothing you can do about it, so just accept it and move on.

How easy is it to miss the forest for the trees? It’s too easy, in fact. And yet we so often forget the obvious solution: distance.

Indeed, you can only hope to understand the systems that steer your life and your position in society by stepping back and gaining the perspective of someone on the outside looking in.

Now that you have a better understanding of what systems are, it’s time to look at how you can apply this knowledge to improve your professional and personal life. But first we have to set some ground rules.

Start by defining your objectives and corresponding strategies in detail. If you don’t know what your objectives are, it becomes impossible to make decisions, as your choices will have no clearly motivated purpose.

A business isn’t a monolith. Rather, it is a complex organization comprised of various interoperating systems. So how can you hope to manage such complexity?

Like every system, your business can be broken down into subsystems. By delegating the supervision of departments, that is, subsystems, you save yourself valuable time that can be invested in leadership instead.

Most people want their business to run like a well-oiled machine. But even a rusty old machine is a good starting point.

By repairing the subsystems within your business, you have an opportunity to find huge value.

What is the right goal? Is it getting everything right? All 100 percent? When it comes to business, we’ll have to use a different logic.

Here, 98 percent is good enough. Don’t waste time and money on trying to get things 100 percent right.