"It requires acknowledging that the very management practices and organisational structures that got leaders to their current positions might be precisely what's preventing their organisations from adapting to a complex, rapidly changing world. But that level of self-examination is hard. It threatens established power structures, comfortable routines, and career advancement paths. It's much easier to hire consultants to "fix the culture" whilst leaving management behaviours unchanged. I It's more comfortable to implement new processes than to examine why people circumnavigate existing ones.  It's safer to mandate training programmes than to act on the feedback they generate." Bob Marshall What is the system here? Who benefits from the current system? Do people fulfil their potential? Why haven't we been focusing on enabling performance? What are you prepared to do differently?

"Managers are concerned with reputation. They are not concerned with improving their systems. I think they should be concerned with improving their systems." John Seddon In our organisations, leaders could choose to define 'performance' as 'the ability for the people we hired to fulfil their potential in the environment we have created here'. We know that organisational systems determine 'performance' and that systems ('the way the work works here') are wholly owned by the leaders. But the industrial, directive, pace-setting, process and tools led safety zone perpetuated by leaders - focused on managing reputation and status - inevitably discourages a focus on systems.