I help people change the underlying patterns driving performance. Executive Coach | Transformational Growth through Conscious Simplicity | 15+ Years Coaching 250+ Leaders
“Don’t push growth; remove the factors limiting growth.” - Peter Senge When you’re trying to grow a company, become a better leader, and find the effortless performance you imagine, this is the low-hanging fruit. This is the fuel you already have. This is how you get really good. But people almost never look for what limits them. At work, we look for better advice, better models, a new framework. We latch on to “best practices” that worked for different people in different companies in a different time and imagine these will be the magic key that unlocks how great we imagine ourselves to be. We’ll find someone or something new—anything from a new hire to a new management system to a different type of personality test—and that’ll be the thing to overcome all the stuckness we feel day to day. It never works—at least not for long. Yes, the initial excitement of something new can be pretty thrilling. We say we’re driven by logic and data, but trying a new thing is pure emotion. We envision our success and feel the surge of optimism that comes with that. But that’s not where sustained performance starts. It’s a mirage, a false peak. That new thing is external, and it makes a little more noise than the other external things in the daily drain. It’s shiny and new, and it won’t stay that way. Removing barriers is how you get better. All this stuff builds up—even that shiny new initiative—and becomes a part of the status quo—the very thing you were trying to change. And when you add to the stuff outside of you you’re trying to overcome, it adds to the effort it takes to change. Odd that trying too hard to change actually makes change harder. It amplifies the factors limiting growth. Subtraction can be far more powerful than addition. It helps you see more clearly. It declutters your mind and your company in a Marie Kondo-style purge of everything that keeps you numb. Growth doesn’t need a push—it needs room to breathe.
Joseph Logan is that quote from Senge's book The Fifth Discipline? Great book!
Insightful as always Joseph. 💡 We should remember to cut ourselves a little slack as we try this approach on for size... You know, given the relentless conditioning of "more = better" (or "new = better") drilled into us by our business and consumer culture. 📈 Makes it easy to overlook subtraction as the first option for healthy growth and flow. 🧐
Hugo Mendez
1w
So true Joseph Logan. Less is more. Less provides more clarity and focus.
Ceres Chua
1w
So true! My favorite life hack is to spend the time to create the most ideal environment that will greatly enhance my ability to accomplish my goals.
Consultant | Technologist | Investor | Business Mentor
1wI agree. Sometimes I think of it as removing rocks from a stream that are blocking the flow. There is such a thing as unhealthy levels of growth. Once you get in tune with the rhythms and core principles of a business there are seemingly endless things to improve. At this level you don't need to worry so much about what others are doing time is better spent improving and you don't have to worry about "working yourself out of a job" there will always be more challenges to face. Don't worry about being left with having nothing left to do when you work all of your current responsibilities into the system. The number of new things that need to be worked on is seemingly endless.