At some point this week, I was watching a political commentary podcast that suggested the administrators of our system of government no longer believe the system can solve any of society's problems.
This got me thinking about the managers I’ve worked with over the years. Many of them knew the problems below them, and had ideas about how to solve those problems, but then did nothing.
For one manager, this was because the company culture wouldn’t allow him to speak to his managers about anything problematic. He had to pass on good news to his superiors because if he didn’t, they would consider him personally to be performing poorly.
Just like the economy should work for us and not our work for the economy, all of our systems should work for us and not the other way around.
Anyone can change a system within which they exist.
The scope of what you can change may be limited, but there will be something. Team leaders are exceptionally well-placed to make impactful changes within an organisation. A team leader has the authority to convey messages up the hierarchy about what life is really like on the ground, and low enough in the hierarchy to genuinely know.
You can not change much of significance when alone. To even attempt to do so, you would need to call in a lot of goodwill or bully others to achieve goals that probably only benefit you.
As with all things people, change relies upon social capital. Your social capital represents the wealth that you gain from the networks of interpersonal relationships. In the workplace, we can build these relationships on a foundation of shared identity, shared norms, cooperation, and reciprocity. If you want to increase your influence within an organisation, start by building up your social capital.
If something is significant to you, it is likely to be significant to others as well. Look to find those others so you can work together to design and implement a change that will cause the least frustration and the most improvement for everyone. There will be solutions that annoy everyone more or less and solutions that enthuse some more than the solutions they imagined could.
Just as we try to teach our product owners to find the sweet spot for all stakeholders, team leaders, scrum masters, and agile coaches must also find the sweet spot for all stakeholders in an encountered problem.
When you try to find a common, mutually beneficial solution, other people will willingly support you not just with their social capital but also with their direct input. Finding more people to help design and build solutions to the problems that their teams are facing must absolutely be part of your role.
Do not wait for permission to make your small corner of the world better.