Working In the System and Working On the System: Why Leaders Need Both—and How to Start

April 11, 2025

By Kevin McGovern | Organizational Consultant | Leadership Development | Liminal Partners

As leaders, we often find ourselves trapped in the daily grind—approving requests, solving problems, and helping our teams put out fires. This is the essence of working in the system. It’s often reactive, urgent, and necessary.

But to build something resilient and scalable, we also need to make space for working on the system—that is, improving the very processes we’re operating in. It's about designing better workflows, building leadership capability, planning for the future, and creating systems that serve our teams, not the other way around.

The challenge? Most leaders don’t carve out time to do both.

A Simple Tool to Start Working On the System: Process Mapping

One of the easiest ways to start working on the system is to create a workflow or process map. This doesn’t require fancy software or Six Sigma black belts. You can use Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Miro, or even a wall of sticky notes. Here is a recent example a ran a team through:

Here’s how I might guide teams through it:

1. Write each step in the process from start to finish.

2. Connect the steps sequentially so the flow is clear.

3. Create swim lanes to track handoffs across departments, roles, or individuals.

4. Color code each step: 🟢 Green: All good, 🟡 Yellow: Watch points, 🔴 Red: Bottlenecks or blockers

5. Talk through the map with your team. Socialize potential solutions, explore dependencies, and identify areas for improvement with all potentially impacted areas/people.

6. Implement changes and track progress.

7. Update your SOPs and training materials to reinforce the new system.

It’s Not the Tool—It’s the Time

Process mapping isn’t rocket science. What is hard is making time for this kind of work. Working on the system is rarely urgent, but always important. It’s the classic Eisenhower Matrix dilemma: important but not urgent.

That’s why many of our clients hire us—not just to bring tools and frameworks, but to hold space and accountability for leaders to shift from firefighting to systems thinking.

Skillsets Solve Problems. Mindsets Shift Realities.

Balancing both kinds of work requires two things:

• The skillset to map and improve systems.

• The mindset to believe it’s worth doing—and to protect time for it.

Working in the system delivers results. Working on the system makes those results sustainable—and scalable.

Want help designing a system that works for your team? Let’s talk.