You’re Not Stuck *In* Traffic, You *Are* Traffic

You find yourself stuck in traffic, looks like you’re going to be late for work.

Sure, traffic is a problem, but you are part of that problem. The car you’re in is taking up just as much road as everyone else. Nobody held a gun to your head and told you to take that downtown job an hour away from your leafy suburban home. You used your free will to take the job, including all the ramifications that came with it.

Eric Ries uses this traffic idea as a metaphor for the human condition. The systems we complain about are often the systems we participate in. We must acknowledge that we are not standing outside pointing fingers. We’re inside it, contributing to its outcomes.

Every organization is a living system made up of thousands of tiny decisions. Culture isn’t something that exists “over there” in HR. It’s created by the meetings we run, the emails we send, the behaviors we reward, the compromises we tolerate, and the products we choose to buy.

It’s possible to influence a system from both sides. As leaders and employees, we shape the organizations we play a part in. Every behavior repeated becomes part of the culture. As customers, we shape the organizations we reward. Every dollar spent is a vote. 

Ries is not naive enough to tell us to only do business with people and companies whose values are identical to ours – the world is far too complex for that. A company that shares your passion for, say, good design and looking after their employees may not score so high on, say, animal rights or sustainability. The world simply has too many boxes to tick them all.

Nor should we try.

We’ve all heard the iconic line, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

But you can’t do that without agency. And you can’t have agency without acknowledging that you, too, are part of the problem, part of the traffic, part of the dance.

And fortunately (or unfortunately), the only person who can help you accept this, is you.