How the systems we build shape identity, behaviour, and what people are able to achieve.
Why starting with the system can be the most people centred thing you do
Early in my career, I worked as a Probation Officer after completing my social work degree. Working closely with people rebuilding their lives made something very clear: when the system around someone does not enable success, even the best support and interventions have limited impact.
Early in my career I worked as a Probation Officer after completing my social work degree.
That experience taught me many things and shaped how I think about organisations far more than I realised at the time.
When you are working directly with people who are trying to rebuild their lives, you quickly see something very clearly: if the system around them isn’t enabling success, even the best support and interventions often have limited impact.
That lesson has stayed with me throughout the 25 years I’ve spent in the public service.
While I valued working directly with people, what increasingly captured my interest was how the system around us shaped what outcomes were possible. That curiosity about “how we work” led me into leadership quite early, and later into operational and system design.
Over and over again I’ve seen the same pattern: if the system isn’t enabling success, the best leadership, the strongest capability, and the hardest work won’t achieve the impact we are seeking.
That has probably made me a little obsessed with systems, structures and processes. Former colleagues often quote a couple of phrases back to me with a laugh: “What problem are we trying to solve?” and “I have a model for that.”
Occasionally that focus on systems leads people to wonder whether I’m putting systems ahead of people.
For me it’s the opposite.
The best leaders absolutely put people first. But if the system they are working in doesn’t create the conditions for success; leadership, capacity and capability alone are rarely enough.
I believe that designing, building, and maintaining systems that enable people to succeed is one of the most people centred things we can do.