Introduction: We Don’t Rise Above Systems. We Reflect Them.
When leaders talk about increasing engagement, improving performance, or reducing stress, the instinct is often to look at the individual and what tools they need, how they can manage their time better, or how to build personal resilience.
But resilience alone is not enough when the environment itself is draining. Even the most motivated individuals cannot thrive inside systems that consistently produce friction, overload, or disconnection.
If organisations want their people to thrive, they must stop asking, “How do we fix our people?” and start asking, “What kind of system are we asking them to operate in?”
This is where systemic thinking becomes essential and where sustainable systemic leadership begins.
Why the System Shapes More Than We Realise
Human beings are adaptive. We calibrate to the culture and expectations around us. If a team culture rewards overwork, that becomes the norm. If an organisation avoids difficult conversations, avoidance becomes the strategy.
As Peter Senge wrote in The Fifth Discipline, “Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions.” We cannot address challenges like low engagement, misalignment, or fatigue by tweaking the surface. We must examine the system that produces them.
In organisational psychology, open systems theory teaches us that every organisation is a dynamic system of inputs, outputs, feedback loops, and internal processes. Behaviour is not just personal, it is patterned. If the pattern consistently produces stress, silence, or reactivity, the issue is not individual effort; it is systemic design.
When the System Is Out of Sync: Recognising the Signs
Systemic dysfunction often shows up as recurring patterns, not isolated incidents. Common indicators include:
- Chronic overload and firefighting
Research by the CIPD shows that workload is the most common cause of work-related stress in the UK, particularly among managers. Overloaded systems erode performance and decision quality over time.
- Repeated interpersonal tension
What looks like conflict is often a symptom of unmet role clarity, unspoken expectations, or broken trust loops within the team system.
- Leadership fatigue and turnover
Data from Gallup and Deloitte show that when leaders lack systemic support, they become less effective and more likely to leave, particularly in mid-sized organisations where demands are high and buffers are few.
- Well-being initiatives that don’t move the dial
When the system still values constant availability, no amount of yoga or resilience training will undo the message that success equals self-sacrifice.
- Confusion about priorities and accountability
In systems without clear feedback loops, people work hard but remain misaligned. The result is effort without impact and growing frustration.
What Thriving Systems Do Differently
Research from the Centre for Creative Leadership, McKinsey, and systemic team coaching literature points to the same truth:
It’s not the brilliance of individuals that drives sustained success; it’s the quality of the system they operate within.
Thriving systems are not perfect. But they are intentional. They create environments where:
- Psychological safety is not just spoken about, but modelled in meetings and decisions (Edmondson, 1999)
- Feedback is normalised, not weaponised
- Roles and responsibilities are transparent and adaptable
- The pressure to perform is balanced by space to pause, reflect, and recover
- Leadership teams operate as aligned systems, not collections of individuals
In these environments, trust and accountability grow in tandem and teams begin to thrive together, not just survive alone.
Systemic Solutions Are Built, Not Bought
While generic well-being programmes and leadership toolkits have their place, they rarely address the unique dynamics within each organisation.
Systemic interventions go deeper. They are based on inquiry, context, and connection.
At Inspired at Work, we don’t offer off-the-shelf solutions. Instead, we support organisations through:
- Leadership and team coaching rooted in systemic thinking
- Diagnostics that surface not just symptoms, but patterns
- Facilitated conversations that shift assumptions and build alignment
- Culture work that connects structure, behaviour, and meaning
These interventions are grounded in evidence and shaped by lived leadership realities.
As Professor Peter Hawkins notes, “Effective teams don’t just solve problems, they develop the capacity to learn and evolve together.”
That evolution starts by seeing the system clearly.
The Inspired at Work Approach: Designing for Thriving
Inspired at Work integrates systemic leadership principles into every aspect of our work. Our 7 Pillars Method provides a whole-person, whole-organisation lens for sustainable change spanning body, mind, emotion, spirit, self, relationships, and the organisation itself.
Whether supporting a leadership team through team coaching or guiding an executive through vertical development, our approach is designed to:
- Reveal the hidden dynamics that influence team behaviour
- Strengthen the relational fabric of leadership
- Align structural processes with cultural intentions
- Translate insight into action, and action into long-term change
We believe thriving isn’t accidental, it is created, one system at a time.
Final Reflection: Stop Trying to Fix People. Start Designing Better Systems.
Organisations are living systems shaped by stories, habits, and shared beliefs.
If we want more energy, more trust, and more meaningful work, we need to shift the focus from individual resilience to collective design.
Because people cannot thrive in systems that make thriving impossible.
The good news? Systems can be changed.
And when they are, everything else begins to change, too.
Want to explore how to create a leadership system that supports real thriving?
Let’s start a conversation about systemic coaching, leadership development, and lasting cultural alignment.
