Before You Pick a Tool, Understand the System You're Already In

In a past life, I worked as a director of programs at a local science center.

That meant I oversaw education, public programs, exhibits—all the things people actually came for. But I also got handed the messy projects. The ones that didn’t fit neatly into anyone else’s job description. The ones that asked, "How are we supposed to make this work?"

One of those messy projects? We were preparing to move from our 33,000-square-foot facility into a brand-new space more than triple the size.

Eventually, I was asked to figure out where everyone would sit in the new building. But first, we had to solve a much bigger, more urgent problem:

Where were all these new staff members supposed to work right now?

Because the current building? It was never designed to hold that many people.

We had offices carved out of closets. Shared desks crammed into corners. And we couldn’t just throw up cubicles and call it done. Every inch we used for staff meant one less place for a school group to learn or a family to explore. People didn’t come to our science center for admin space—they came to see our giant snapping turtle. To feel static electricity on their skin. To touch, try, and tinker.

So the office space had to work without getting in the way.

It had to be functional, flexible, and almost invisible.

How people function is a system

Here’s what often gets missed when folks think about systems:

They assume the system is the software. Or the setup. Or the template.

But a system is just the set of parts that interact to make something happen.

In this case? The “system” was how people worked inside the building. Who they talked to. What they needed within reach. What kind of work they did, and what made that work harder or easier.

And before we made any changes, I needed to understand how that system was already functioning—even if it was barely holding together.

So I started asking questions:

• Who do you talk to most?

• What tools or resources do you use every day?

• What breaks your flow?

• What do you wish was different?

Not hypothetically. Not in theory. Right here, right now.

Because when you’re designing a system—whether it’s an office layout or a client onboarding workflow—you have to start with what’s real. Not ideal.

The system behind the scenes

Asking those questions gave me a map.

Not just of where people sat, but how they worked. What they needed access to. Who they leaned on. What made their days smoother—or more frustrating.

From there, we could create real solutions:

• Quiet workstations for part-time staff who only needed a space a few hours a week

• Grouped desk clusters for teams that collaborated constantly

• Shared resources placed where multiple departments could easily access them

No cookie-cutter layouts. No wasted space. And no cutting into the exhibits that made our space special.

It worked. Because we started by understanding the system as it already existed.

The same is true in your business

If your systems feel clunky, disconnected, or hard to maintain—it’s probably not because you picked the wrong tool.

It’s because that tool was introduced before you fully understood how your business functions.

Strategy isn’t picking a platform and making it pretty.

Strategy is asking better questions.

It’s mapping how things actually work before deciding how they should work.

It’s naming the hidden constraints—like needing more space for your team without sacrificing what makes your work magical.

Because good systems aren’t just efficient. They’re supportive. They’re sustainable. And they’re built for the way you work.

Want to find the system behind the scramble? Let’s figure out what’s quietly making your week harder—and how to make it flow instead.