Break the Rut
David T. Norman | Supercharge Leadership and Culture
Published on Leadership Perspectives | davidtnorman.com
There is an old idea, loosely connected to the world of creative thinking, that goes something like this: “If you do the same thing three days in a row, you’re in a rut.” Three days. Not three months. Not three years. Three days.
That is how quickly routine can turn into autopilot. And autopilot is one of leadership’s greatest enemies.
After more than five decades of consulting, I’ve noticed that when leaders stop changing how they think, who they listen to, and the questions they ask, they don’t simply become bored. They begin to lose perspective. The same inputs lead to the same outputs, and organizations can slowly drift toward what feels familiar and comfortable. Real growth rarely happens there.
Here’s the part that may surprise many leaders: breaking out of a rut does more than encourage innovation. It can also reduce the pressure of feeling like you have to be “the one with all the answers.”
Ask a different question in a team meeting, and you create an opportunity for others to think. Seek out a perspective you would not normally hear, and you share the responsibility of finding the answer. Step outside the usual decision-making process, and you make room for the collective wisdom of your team.
Research on team effectiveness consistently shows that leaders who move from simply providing answers to asking thoughtful questions can encourage greater engagement and stronger problem-solving within their teams.¹ You are not taking on less responsibility. You are carrying it differently, and that difference matters.
The answer to autopilot is not chaos. It is deliberate variation.
Read something outside your industry. Take a different route through your day. Ask someone on your team what they see that you might be overlooking. These are small changes, but they send an important message to the people around you: leadership is something you actively practice, not a fixed position you simply occupy.
Ruts rarely announce themselves. They develop quietly, one repeated day at a time. The leaders who remain sharp are the ones who recognize the pattern and deliberately choose to do something different.
That choice, made consistently, is how good leaders become extraordinary ones.
¹ Edmondson, A.C. (1999). "Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams." Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. See also Woolley, A.W., et al. (2010). "Evidence for a collective intelligence factor in the performance of human groups." Science, 330(6004), 686-688.David Norman works with business leaders who are ready to build organizations capable of performing not just when conditions cooperate but especially when they do not. His books Supercharge: A New Playbook for Leadership and Accountability Shift: Tips, Traps, and Techniques are available now. Subscribe to this newsletter at davidtnorman.substack.com -- currently free for early subscribers.
