Chase environments that make your goals inevitable.
When things go wrong, sometimes it is more powerful to change the environment, rather than ourselves. Look to the bigger picture of people and process when evaluating how to solve a problem.
At Instagram, my team and I used to joke that while we like to think we’re actively shaping the future of Instagram, all we’re really doing is introducing random variation on a pre-determined trajectory. I often drew the following chart on the whiteboard for new team members:
The takeaway wasn’t about lack of control or agency. It is about humility.
We often underestimate how much our environment shapes our thoughts, actions, and ultimately our ability to achieve our goals. This bias drives us to better ourselves, but also leads us to underestimate the impact of changing our environment.
In a psychology experiment, students passed a person in need. Helping rates were ~63% for those who were unhurried, ~45% for those in a moderate hurry, and only ~10% for those who were in a high rush. The situation, not their inherent character or skillset, played an outsized role in determining the actions of the students.
The same philosophy holds in the workplace. When another team declines to help us in our work, we may think they are not collaborative. But perhaps they are overwhelmed with requests or have contradicting goals. When we are overlooked for a new opportunity or promotion, we may attribute it to our own lack of skill or value. However, it could be because there isn’t a business need or a quota on promotions.
At Instagram and Meta, one of the most effective ways to build successful features was to find emerging trends on the platform and then boost them. Rather than inventing a solution or way of doing something, the key was to figure out how some people were already doing it today and make that process easier. Instead of trying to go against the existing environment, it was more effective to work with it.
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The next time you encounter a problem, try considering both your own actions and the impact of the environment. Ask yourself the following questions:
What was the environment in which this problem occurred? What else was happening in the business? with the leadership team? with your team?
Which parts of this were within your control? Which ones were outside of your control (or very difficult to try to control?)
How can you shift your environment such that the outcome you desire is more likely? What can you change about the people involved, the goals that are set, or how the work is done?
Instead of trying to deliver more work, try changing how your work is perceived by leadership. Instead of struggling with another coworker, try working together to change their goals or mandate. Instead of trying to adapt to a difficult manager, try finding another team where your strengths are valued.
When you incorporate changes to the environment into your potential solution set to a problem, it vastly expands possibilities and also lessens self-criticism when things go wrong.
That’s all folks! See you next week at 3:14 pm.
Yue