When Success Becomes the Problem
Welcome back to your Peak of the Week, where we explore what it means to live aligned, lead authentically, and build a life that feels as good as it looks.
This Week →
Why the systems built for success are now the systems making us sick
How optimization thinking has reached its limit—and what AI is revealing about where it leads
Three ways to interrupt the pattern and start asking different questions about growth
Read Time < 3 minutes
What got you here won't just fail to get you there—it might be the very thing destroying you on the way.
What I'm Seeing
I had coffee with a CEO recently who said: "We optimized everything. We're more efficient than we've ever been. And everyone is completely exhausted."
He wasn't confused about the problem. He was confused about how they got there. They'd done everything right. Hit every metric. Streamlined every process. Removed every bottleneck. And somehow, in all that winning, they'd created an organization where people felt like replaceable parts.
The very systems we built to succeed are now the systems making us sick.
For decades, we squeezed more output from less input. We called it efficiency. We celebrated it. We rewarded the leaders who could do it best. And it worked. Until suddenly, it didn't. Because when you build a system designed to get maximum output from minimum human energy, you eventually hit a wall. You run out of things to take.
That exhausted CEO? He'd pulled every lever. His people had nothing left to give. And neither did he.
The model that built modern business has reached its limit. And we're all feeling it.
What If?
What if the thing we're calling "the future of work" is actually just the final stage of a system that was always going to end this way?
Stay with me here.
We built organizations like machines. We optimized for efficiency. We reduced costs. We eliminated waste. We automated what we could and pushed people to do more with less. And it worked brilliantly—until AI showed us where this thinking leads. A system designed to minimize human input is now figuring out how to remove humans entirely.
But when you remove the human, you remove the source of new value.
Machines can optimize what already exists. They can process, replicate, accelerate. But they cannot originate. They cannot imagine. They cannot care or choose or create meaning. They can only work with what's already there.
The companies surviving the next decade won't be the ones who automate people out of the equation. They'll be the ones who figure out how to help their people grow. Because human potential is the only resource that actually expands with use.
What if the future doesn't belong to organizations that perfect efficiency, but to ones that unlock what their people are truly capable of?
What if, instead of asking "how do we get more from our people," we started asking "how do we help our people become more"?
Imagine if that CEO started tracking something different. Not just productivity numbers, but energy levels. Not just output, but whether people were growing or depleting. What might he discover? That his most productive quarter was also his most draining and unsustainable? That his people were performing—and dying inside?
What if he stopped asking "how efficient are we?" and started asking "are our people expanding or shrinking?". Because the cost of staying on this path? Burnout. Turnover. Innovation that stops. Leaders who leave. Organizations that can hit numbers but can't adapt.
What if he shifted even slightly—what if he created space for people to learn in real time, to contribute instead of just comply, to develop instead of just deliver? What might change? Energy could rise. Ideas could emerge. People could stop feeling like cogs in a machine and start feeling like partners in building something.
The system that got us here is ending. Not because it failed, but because it succeeded so completely that it consumed itself.
Micro-Moves
This week, I’m inviting you to choose one way to interrupt this pattern:
If you’re leading a team: Ask one person this week: “What would you do differently if you knew we valued your growth as much as your results?” Then actually listen. Don’t problem-solve. Don’t defend how things work now. Just receive what they say. Notice what emerges when people feel permission to imagine something different.
If you’re feeling depleted yourself: Track your energy this week alongside your output. At the end of each day, write down: What drained me? What gave me life? What did I create versus what did I just complete? Look for the pattern.
If you’re stuck in the machine: Identify one place where you’re just complying instead of truly contributing. One meeting where you’re performing instead of participating. One process where you’ve stopped thinking and started executing. And this week, in that one place, ask yourself: What would I do here if my capability mattered more than my compliance?
You don’t have to change everything. You just have to notice where the old pattern is running. Once you see it, you can start to shift it.
With deep belief in your magnificence,
Laura
I'm watching organizations realize that the old model is ending. The question isn't whether it will change. The question is whether you'll lead the change or be consumed by the collapse.
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Your people aren’t the problem. The system that treats them like parts is the problem.
And you get to choose what comes next.
If you’re ready to unlock what your people are truly capable of:
I work with organizations to transform how they develop leaders and unlock human potential. Through speaking engagements, leadership workshops, and executive coaching, I help companies move from systems that deplete people to cultures where capability grows and performance compounds.
This isn’t about adding more programs or initiatives. It’s about fundamentally shifting how you see and develop your people—from resources to manage to potential to unlock.
If your organization is ready to lead this shift, let’s talk.
CONNECT WITH ME ABOUT LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT