Topsoil Property Co

One of the biggest threats to successful scaling is bad behavior: it is very contagious and can cancel out the benefits or even destroy excellent behavior. We’ve all worked in a team where one member undermined the entire group’s performance.Research on group effectiveness has also shown that group performance decreases by 30 to 40 percent if just one person has a disruptive mindset. The problem is that destructive behavior escalates quickly. Even small acts can be extremely damaging to the performance of the entire group. Since destructive behavior is such a cancer, leaders need to address it before trying to spread excellent practices. The best strategy is to have no tolerance for bad behavior. Then focus on scaling the good.

We are fixated on events. Our brains are hardwired to think about the here and now. Our brain is constantly scanning the horizon, trying to identify and combat any potential threats. This was great when we were cavemen running from lions. This instinct kept us alive. But today, the biggest threats in both our society and organizations are not from sudden events but from slow, gradual processes. But this wiring in our brain leaves us ill-prepared to combat a declining middle class, a failing public education system, and climate change. We try to be "proactive," but more often than not, being proactive is actually just reactiveness in disguise. We are conditioned to fight the "enemy out there" by reacting. We fail to be truly proactive - this comes from seeing how we contribute to our own problems. We are conditioned to blame outside forces for our problems - the government, our neighbors, our enemies, the press - they did this to us. Systems thinking shows us that th...