Take Yourself Seriously: What Happens to Insight at Work

We have all had these moments at work when something feels off.

You notice an inefficiency.
A decision doesn’t quite make sense.
A behavior is getting in the way of progress.

Most people recognize these moments as they’re happening. They see what isn’t working. Often, they have a sense of what would improve it. But that insight does not always go anywhere.

In my work with individuals and teams, I have noticed a consistent pattern: people feel frustrated by an aspect of their work but don’t always address it.

They minimize what they see.
They question whether it really matters.
They don’t think it is their role to address it.
They go along to get along.

Sometimes this hesitation is shaped by past personal experiences.
Sometimes it’s shaped by the organization itself, by what is rewarded, what is ignored, and what feels risky to name.
Often, it’s a combination of the two.

For many people, speaking up doesn’t feel safe, useful, or worth the cost. As a result, the issues that get in the way of doing the work well don’t always reach the people making decisions.

Organizations are full of insight.
Much of it goes unused.

This is one of the reasons the ALIGN method is structured the way it is.

It asks leaders to actively seek out perspectives from customers, staff, vendors, and other stakeholders.
It creates a clear and timely path for that input to inform decisions.
It brings people into the work when strategy affects how their job is carried out.

Without a deliberate effort to surface and work through different perspectives, decisions are made with only part of the reality in view.

To make sound decisions, leaders must integrate perspectives that may be in tension with one another.

A customer may experience the service as excellent, while a vendor struggles to deliver materials in the time and manner required. Both perspectives are valid.

The leader’s role is to sort through them, determine priorities, and move the work forward.

That is the organizational side of the equation.

The individual side looks different.

In one-on-one coaching conversations, when we slow the focus down and look closely at what is bothering a person, something else becomes clear. Their frustration is not random. It is connected to real impediments to their work.

They have identified gaps, misalignment, inefficiencies, or behaviors that are getting in the way, not just for themselves, but for the team and the organization.

Their frustration reflects an unspoken standard for how the work should function, and where reality does not meet that standard.

Their observations are valid.
They are useful.
But they are not brought forward.

In these conversations, I ask clients a simple question:

What would you do if you took this seriously, instead of continuing to live with it?

The response is almost immediate. People can articulate the steps they would take. The actions are practical, thoughtful, and effective.

Then I ask a second question:

What would it look like if you took your perceptions, your insights, yourself, seriously?

This is where things get more complicated.

For some people, the answer is constrained by reality. They know what they would do, and they also know why they haven’t done it. They don’t feel safe raising the issue. They don’t trust it will be received well. They don’t believe it will change anything. Those assessments are not imagined. They are often accurate.

This is the chicken-and-egg problem.

Organizations need people to speak up in order to improve.
People need organizations to be safe in order to speak up.

Both are true.

When I say Take Yourself Seriously, I don’t mean you should ignore context or expect to have things always go your way. I mean recognize that what you are noticing is legitimate, even if acting on it requires care, timing, or restraint. I mean resist the impulse to dismiss your own insight simply because the system around you makes it difficult to use.

The ALIGN method provides a path for productive input. But no system can fully compensate for insight that has already been discounted before it ever reaches the surface.

There is wisdom in every person. And that wisdom can improve the organization.

The question is not whether people see what needs attention.

The question, for both individuals and organizations, is what makes it possible, or impossible, to take that seeing seriously.