Changing The System Starts With What Shapes It

Most organizations approach change the same way: move the boxes, rewrite the process, add a new tool, launch a new workflow.

These are the visible parts of a system. They're easy to see, easy to point to, and easy to rearrange.

They're also the least likely to produce meaningful change.

Think about the last big shift your organization attempted. A reorg. A new performance model. A new CRM. Some initiative meant to "improve communication" or "break down silos."

How often did real behavior actually change?

No matter how good the plan is, how good the change management model you use, or How well you "sell" the vision (assuming you can even measure that) - the system's behavior patterns will resist it.

The Trap of Structural Solutions

Structural changes feel satisfying because they're concrete. We can document them, announce them, show progress. If you can measure it, it can be done!

But structures mostly reflect how people already think, decide, and behave. If the underlying assumptions stay the same, then the structure will quietly bend back to match those beliefs. Such examples include: how we define success, what we reward, what we fear, how we interpret conflict, how much risk we tolerate, what we believe is "professional" or "safe".

This is why teams revert to old habits even after a major shift. The shape changed, but the system's deeper logic didn't.

Where Change Actually Begins

One could argue change begins with the vision for a end result. I would argue change really begins with the dissatisfaction of the current reality. The vision tends to come second.

But in order to change the system, the work begins deeper than what is on the surface.

Elements like policies, org charts, workflows sit at the shallow end. But the invisible forces that shape how people actually use those structures sit much deeper. Such examples include mindsets, norms, and shared assumptions about "how things work around here".

Intervening at the deeper, non-visible level is where the system is most responsive. People ask better questions at this level: What do we believe this change is really for? Who does the current system serve by keeping it this way? Who benefits the least from the current system? What are the non-written rules of how we operate? What assumptions are we holding onto when facing this change? The list can go on and on.

Shifts at this level don't just change outcomes. They change what becomes possible.

The Higher Return is Harder work.

This kind of change takes more courage. You can't delegate it to a software upgrade or a reorg slide deck. It requires reflection, conversations that surface competing loyalties, and leadership willing to sit inside the discomfort of rethinking long-held assumptions.

This may not be rocket science, but it is very difficult work for us human beings to do.

That said, the payoff is significant. When the internal logic shifts, the external structures finally work. The new process sticks. The reorg takes root. The strategy becomes more than words on a page.

Final Thoughts

This is a gross oversimplification of the actual work that needs to be done. It is not a 5-step formula, it is not a convenient check the box off the punch list process, and it certainly is not for "experts" or those in the highest positions of authority to solve alone. But it is important to know why we at Well Led approach our work from the deeper, less visible, and arguably more difficult work to do in taking on organizational challenges.

The answer is quite simple, really: if you do not do this harder work now, you will pay the unfortunate price of system resistance that increases your odds of becoming the now-famous 70%+ failure rate statistic for change efforts.