Get to the Core of What You Want to Design the Systems that You Need
Everything is done through systems.
That’s not a metaphor. It’s a description of reality.
All results come from systems.
(The working title of my third book.)
And the truth is: your systems are already working.
So are mine.
Sometimes my systems are excellent at loading me up with distractions.
I sit down at the computer to write this article… and somehow end up on Amazon.
Looking at wooden puzzles.
Why?
Because there’s a system running in the background.
A system that still makes it hard to share my work, even though I write every day.
A system that’s perfectly designed to avoid hitting “publish.”
And here’s the thing: it’s working.
It’s producing exactly the result it’s meant to.
Just not the result I want.
Systems Always Work—Even When You Don't Like the Outcome
People who are always late?
They have a system.
Teams that fail to implement new tools or keep changing strategies without progress?
They have a system.
Athletes who lose momentum at the most crucial moment?
That’s a system too.
Winning teams have systems.
So do schools, families, entire industries.
Every system is producing the result it’s designed for.
The real question is: Is it the result you want?
To Get a New Result, You Need a New System
Here’s what I want:
- To hit publish multiple times each day
- To finish my second book (The Necessity of Destruction)
- To put my first book on Amazon so people can order print versions.
- To share my monthly event with more people who would benefit from it.
And yet—on many days—I find myself:
- Browsing Gamefound.
- Reading “The Hotness” on BoardGameGeek.
- Researching things I don’t need.
That’s not laziness or lack of discipline.
That’s a system. It’s just not the one I want anymore.
So I’m designing a different one.
All Systems Begin with a Mental System
In The Necessity of Destruction, there’s a chapter I’m currently struggling with:
The Death of Identity.
It’s the moment in any transformation when we stop trying to grow the old self—and instead release it.
- Retiring after 40 years in a profession? Death of identity.
- Becoming a parent? Death of identity.
- Sending children into their own adult lives? Another death.
These transitions are often forced.
But they don’t have to be.
We can choose to let go of identities that no longer serve our future.
And this is where systems design begins—whether for individuals, teams, or entire organizations.
Identity Death in Organizations
Organizations have identities, too.
We often call them culture.
And changing culture—like changing identity—is incredibly difficult without crisis.
The clients I’ve worked with who were most open to true change?
They weren’t just visionary.
They’d been through something hard.
There was scar tissue in the system.
The previous identity had failed them, and they knew it.
So they were ready to build something new—not on top of the old, but in place of it.
You Don’t Need a Crisis—But You Do Need a Release
You don’t have to burn it all down to change.
But you do have to let something go.
- An assumption.
- A belief.
- A story about who you are or how your team works.
- A process or standard that served you once but no longer does.
You can’t create a new future by doubling down on a past identity.
You can’t scale a company by clinging to founder habits.
You can’t lead a team by thinking like an individual contributor.
You can’t become who you’re becoming while trying to be who you’ve been.
Something has to be released.
Default vs. Design
There are only two ways to live:
- By default: extending your past into the future.
- By design: letting your future shape who you are now.
It sounds like a mindset trick.
And it is.
Because all change is a mind-game we play first with ourselves.
Then, if we’re leading, we play it with our teams.
Then with our organizations.
Then with our communities.
But to play this game well, you need clarity.
You have to ask:
What is the essence of the future I most want to create?
And then:
What part of my current identity—our current culture—needs to be released to make that possible?
The System Can Only Hold What It’s Built to Hold
A system can’t hold a new result if it’s already full of old rules, defaults, and protections.
So if you’re not getting the result you want, ask:
- What systems are producing my current result?
- What beliefs or behaviours are embedded in them?
- What identity are those systems protecting?
And finally:
What must be released to make space for something new to emerge?
Because if you’re already full—individually or organizationally—there’s no room for transformation.
Start at the Core
Whether you’re doing this work for yourself, your team, or your company, the process is the same:
- Get clear on the result you truly want.
- Identify the systems producing your current result.
- Surface the identity those systems are protecting
- Let go of what no longer serves.
- Design the system you need to support who you’re becoming.
It’s not always fast.
It’s rarely easy.
But it’s always necessary.
So that your future won’t be built by default.
It can be built by design.
– Gerrett
This was originally published on Substack in my Human Systems Playground. But I’ve decided to bring all my writing home here.
