Built to Beat Chaos

CHAPTER 7Build a Habit‐reinforcing System

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12

In this chapter we will move from what leaders need to know to what leaders need to do to be effective.

And the first thing any organization that plans to grow needs to do is build a system that defines the way it will be managed. It has to create a framework that facilities leadership best practices and turns them into habits. I refer to this framework or platform as a “leadership system.”

We will start by understanding why a habit‐reinforcing system is needed and then describe five requirements that need to be satisfied when you build it.

Why Do I Need a System?

As you think about the nature of chaos, the design of people, the role of purpose, and the various deceptions covered in Part 1, you probably are coming up with your own reasons for developing some sort of approach to overcome these challenges. To aid you in your thinking, I give you four reasons to devote the time to develop your own leadership system.

Organizations need a standard way to define priorities and manage execution with habits that use less energy so that discretionary mental bandwidth focuses on the more important work of leading people.

1. Free up time to focus on more important issues. The brain only has so much bandwidth. An organization that does not have a standard way to manage ...