We don’t rise to the levels of our goals, we fall to the levels of our systems. This solo episode was inspired by a recent guest on the show named Simon Severino. Simon was featured in episode 376 titled “How to Live an Agile Life,” and he explained a situation in which his company had an urgent situation arise that they were able to quickly resolve due to an existing system that was already in place. Simon emphasized the need for repeatable processes that can be done by various people on a team in order to meet a certain goal.
In this solo episode of The How’d It Happen Podcast, Mike recaps these important lessons from Simon and explains how necessary systems are in life, and especially in business. Mike explains what exactly is and isn’t a system and the crucial role they play in reaching our goals.
Quote from the episode:
“Without a system, your goals are just dreams.”
Check out the video version of this episode below:
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Episode transcript below:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
system, podcast, goals, simon, episode, executed, newsletter, organization, process, thinking, greatness, experience, inspire, likelihood, amazon bestseller, accomplish, future, achieve, blackboard, called
Mike Malatesta 00:00
Hey everybody, it’s Mike and welcome back to this solo episode of the HOW’D IT HAPPEN podcast and I am calling this one, It’s a long title. It’s “you don’t rise to the level of your goals you fall to the level of your systems.” I’ve got that written on the blackboard behind me and I was inspired to do this episode by Simon Severino. And Simon Severino was on my Podcast, episode number 376. If you haven’t checked that out, please do. It’s a great episode. It’s called “How to live an agile life.” We talk about all kinds of things. But as, as I was reading the transcript, from the podcast player, after the episode was released, I noticed this quote that that he had said, during the podcast, you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And he was telling the story about a key team member, letting him know that she was quitting, she was leaving the organization. And he was surprised by it. And he was well very disappointed. And he said, Well, I needed to do something. So I, I told my team, I was going to go out for a run, he runs a lot. And he was training for a marathon at the time. And while he was running, he was just thinking through how devastating this is going to be to the organization because they won’t be able to achieve their goals without this person. That’s what was going through his mind. And when he returned from his run, one of his key people came up to him and said, Simon, I’ve already got three people ready to be interviewed to replace this person? And he’s like, What do you mean, you have three people already, I was only gone for a couple of hours. What do you mean, you already have three people to replace this person? And she said, Well, of course, that’s the system that we have. We have a system to recruit on LinkedIn when something like this happens. And we just executed on the system. And she said, this, and I thought this was really funny, she said in, you may not remember, but you’re the one who created that system. And he said, You know what, I had forgotten that I had created this system. And here, I’d been spending the last couple of hours during this run thinking about all the bad stuff that was going to happen, because this person was leaving. And turns out that we had had an experience like this before. So we developed a system for when it will happen again, because things happen again, and the team executed without any assistance from me. And it was like, yes, that is the definition of a system. So when he said your goals, don’t write your you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, it reminded me of something I just want to share with you that goals without systems are just dreams, their dreams, because without a system, the likelihood that you’re going to accomplish a goal is well, I won’t know about the likelihood so much, but you are basically on a wing and a prayer instead of on a path toward the goal. And so I just wanted to remind everybody, because I wanted to remind myself after hearing this, what is a system. So a system is a documented, repeatable replicatable process that can be taught, can be learned and can be shared inside of an organization or even inside of a family quickly, clearly, and time and time. Again. So that’s what a system is. And when you have a system, it helps you kind of go on autopilot with things. So everybody gets trained the same way everyone knows where the information is the same way. Everybody, everybody can move forward. Because they know what the instructions are system is like, is like a set of instructions. So they’re very powerful. And well, they’re absolutely necessary in order for you to leave the present and even start thinking about the future. So like assignments, things he he had forgotten that he had a system when he was really in the story. And so he was living in the present while his team, while he was a way who were aware of the system, we’re living in the future, they were continuing to move on. So that’s what a system is. So what’s not a system. So this is what’s not a system and I’m just going to use a business example here. So something that is dependent on the owner or a key person to do because they’re the only ones that know how to do it. That’s not a system tribal knowledge The overall experience of everyone who’s worked at the company for a long time and needs to be gotten to or gotten to in groups or whatever, to find out how to do something is not a system and undocumented process is not a system and a varying process, meaning that it depends, it gets done differently, depending on who is doing it. That’s not a system, it is not a system. So it’s Simon saying, don’t have big goals don’t have any goals. Of course, he’s not. He’s saying that coming up with the goal is the easy part. Coming up with a goal is the easy part, the hard part. And the part that keeps you and I from achieving all the goals that we have for ourselves likely comes down to the fact that we will not take the time to put systems in place. So that we can move forward from things that used to be goals and have now been accomplished. And now we do it, we know how to do it, and over and over and over again, to allow us to free get free to think about goals that we don’t know how to accomplish and start working and taking action toward those. And then once we achieve those goals, of course, we need to put a system in place to make sure that we are not going backward on that goal, or not having to think about it every time it happens. Because every time we take a moment away, thinking about something that’s already happened and should not have been repeated the way it was, we lose some time thinking about big goals for our future. So that’s it for today. I hope you got some value from this podcast. And if you did, please share it. I do thank you for investing your time with me today. And all the time that you invest with me, I value it. And I’m grateful for it. So until next time, please maximize your greatness and make your future your property. Something that you are very proud to everybody. Thanks for listening to the show. And before you go, I just have three requests for you one if you like what I’m doing, please consider subscribing or following the podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer. If you’re really into it, leave me a review, write something nice about me Give me five stars or whatever you feel is most appropriate. Number two, I’ve got a book it’s called owner shift how getting selfish got me unstuck. It’s an Amazon bestseller, and I’d love for you to read it or listen to it on Audible or wherever else Barnes and Noble Amazon, you can get it everywhere. If you’re looking for inspiration that will help you unlock your greatness and potential of order or download it today so that you can have your very own copy and if you get it please let me know what you think. Number three, my newsletter. I do a newsletter every Thursday and I talk about things that are interesting to me and or I give more information about the podcast and podcast guests that I’ve had and the experiences that I’ve had with them. You can sign up for the podcast today at my website, which is my name Mike malatesta.com. You do that right now put in your email address and you’ll get the very next issue. The newsletter is short, thoughtful and designed to inspire, activate and maximize the greatness in you
