A Star in One Company. Average in Another. How?

A manager once complained to us that his people lacked initiative. "They wait to be told what to do," she said. Perhaps. But another possibility is worth considering. What if they had learned that behaviour from the organization itself?

We often explain organizational problems through the qualities of individuals. People are resistant. People avoid accountability. People dislike change.

Yet the same individual who appears passive in one organization can appear energetic and entrepreneurial in another. Which version is the real person?

Human behaviour is deeply shaped by context. A system that rewards caution will produce caution. A system that rewards compliance will produce compliance. A system that rewards initiative will produce initiative.

This sounds obvious. Its implications are not, because it suggests that many performance problems are not people problems at all. They are design problems.

The most effective leaders understand this. Rather than asking, "How do we change our people?", they ask, "What is our organization teaching people every day?"