Does the way you work support your most important work?

Don't settle for a structure that gives you a clear path to a lesser goal.

→ This is the final post in a 7-part series on building strategic capacity in your organization. Part 1 here.←

THINK ON IT: Does the way you work support your most important work? 

Over the last six posts, we’ve been exploring ways to increase our strategic capacity (I call it strategic margin), something we all as leaders need to cherish, just as we might the financial margins of our business.

This final topic in the series on building strategic capacity is an invitation to think about the way in which you work: Does the way you work support your most important work? It’s perhaps the most critical question you can ask to unlock ways to increase your strategic margin.

You have a structure to your work. It’s the support system you have to accomplish your goals.

You check emails at a certain time (or perhaps all the time!) and you have a certain way you do it. You track your to-dos, perhaps on a calendar, or an app using the Getting Things Done methodology. Or maybe you use Post-It notes. You also have preferences for meeting times, formats, and locations. You get the idea.

Here’s the thing. You’re likely so accustomed to your structure, that you’re not even aware of it. That’s because structure is largely formed unconsciously, but it can only be reconfigured consciously. And, as noted author Robert Fritz pointed out, “If you try to change your behavior without first changing the underlying structure causing that behavior, you will not succeed. This is because structure determines behavior, not the other way around.”*

That’s an important observation. Our work, like water, will follow the path of least resistance. Are the structures you have in place helping you accomplish your most important work, or are they leading you to work on a lesser goal?

If you find you don’t have as much time as you’d like for strategic work, it may be time to rethink the structures that can help you become a more strategic CEO.

Paid subscribers, read on for ways to evaluate and rebuild a structure that can help you accomplish your most important work. (Become a paid subscriber.)

“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.” — Robert Brandt

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*The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz, 1989.

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