I have listened to people working longer hours with greater focus, and still not being able to keep up with the demands of their job and the expectations that are placed on them. Often, even when they get more organized, they still fall behind. As a result, they are stumped on how to proceed.
Unfortunately, this is a common experience. When hard work, effort and organization are not making the difference, I routinely explain that they are more likely working within a poorly designed, or dysfunctional system. Nine times out of ten, this is not a people problem. It is a system problem.
Many years, when I was a kid at summer camp, I remember gathering at the dock to go canoeing on the lake. Before we partnered up to go canoeing, the counselor made all of us get into one canoe that was tied to the dock. As each person got into the canoe, it sank lower and lower into the water. Finally, it was below the surface of the water and we all were standing or sitting in it. The canoe did not sink to the bottom of the lake, but it also was completely dysfunctional as a canoe.
She explained to us that each boat has a carrying capacity. When rescuing people because their canoe flipped over, it was best not to try and pull everyone into the boat. Instead, ask them to hang on to the sides, and then canoe them to shore.
I think of this often when coaching people who are overwhelmed. Every system has a purpose. For example, a canoe is designed to move through water and the foam blocks at either end are designed to not let it sink. However, each system has a carrying capacity, too. This is the same with a canoe, i.e. the number of people it can carry and still be effective. When you max out a system by overloading it, then, at some point, the system will be functioning, but it will only generate dysfunctional results, i.e. the canoe did not sink to the bottom of the lake, but once the water was over the gunnels it wasn’t functional either.
Currently, more and more people are working within overloaded systems and trying to compensate for the overload.
The cost of this choice is high for all involved. If this is the case, then it is time to ask the question: Has this system
achieved it’s carrying capacity and does it need to be redesigned? The other question we need to ask is this one:
Why are we tolerating dysfunctional systems that are resulting in a decrease in employee engagement?
This week, I encourage you to understand the systems you work with on a daily basis. Get to know what original problem they were designed to solve. And then, determine if the system is still functional or needs to be redesigned in order to meet today’s problems and challenges. This will make a world of difference on so many levels.
© Geery Howe 2025
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