The future doesn’t fit the system
We say we want change, but the way our economy works often blocks it. The system wasn’t built for the future we need.
We’re surrounded by solutions.
Smart, creative, ambitious ones — tackling climate, health, education, inequality.
But if you’ve ever watched a good idea stall, fade, or quietly disappear… you know the frustration.
It’s rarely because the idea was wrong.
More often, it didn’t fit.
It didn’t speak the right language.
Didn’t scale fast enough.
Didn’t promise a strong enough return.
We’re not just designing solutions — we’re trying to grow them inside systems that weren’t built for them. And that changes everything.
The system shapes what’s possible
Many of the systems that shape our society — from how we educate, to how we do business, to how we innovate and provide care — were designed around a different era. One where financial growth, efficiency, and individual performance were seen as signs of success.
Of course, not every system is driven purely by profit, but many have evolved to prioritize it over shared well-being.
That logic still drives how we measure impact today.
So when someone brings forward a regenerative, inclusive, or deeply human idea, it often hits friction.
The system doesn’t ask, is this right? It asks:
Will it scale?
Will it grow?
What’s the ROI?
And if the answer isn’t clear or immediate, the idea doesn’t get far.
We keep refining the machine but rarely ask what it’s built to produce.
Trapped in the now
To think long-term, people need space.
Space to reflect. To build. To challenge what’s already there.
But in many systems, that space doesn’t exist.
Some are navigating daily survival — just trying to make ends meet.
Others are trapped in cycles of KPIs, quarterly targets, and budget approvals.
Even well-meaning teams are forced to prove short-term results.
Long-term value? It’s a luxury the system often can’t afford.
This doesn’t mean people don’t care. It means the system keeps them reactive.
And when we’re all reacting, there’s no room to reimagine.
How the system reshapes what matters
To move a good idea forward, we often have to align it with how the system works.
That usually means translating collective or moral values into measurable, financial outcomes:
Sustainability becomes about cost savings — as long as it’s efficient and low-risk.
Inclusion becomes a strategy for market expansion — not a question of fairness.
Wellbeing becomes a way to boost productivity — not to support people for their own sake.
This isn’t just about language.
It’s about how the system filters what gets taken seriously — and what gets dismissed.
Over time, we don’t just adapt how we talk.
We adapt what we build.
Even regulation reflects this pattern.
Laws like the EU’s CSRD can create pressure to act, but that pressure is external, and often temporary.
When policies shift, like with the recent Omnibus update, priorities shift too.
You can’t build lasting strategy on something you can’t influence.
But you can build on internal motivation — when the commitment comes from within, not from compliance.
That’s the kind of value shift we need.
Not one that reacts to changing rules but endures because it’s chosen.
We end up designing what fits the system,
not what serves people or planet.
We lose the original intent trying to justify it —
until we forget what we were trying to do in the first place.
Maybe that’s the question we should be asking in everything we build:
Does it fit the system, or does it serve the world?
The paradox we’re stuck in
Here’s the tension:
If we don’t connect our ideas to financial value, they’re often dismissed.
But when we only speak in those terms, we flatten the meaning — and start designing for what can be measured, not what truly matters.
It goes deeper than language.
It’s about how we’ve come to value “value”, where return on investment matters more than return on impact, and what can’t be quantified struggles to survive.
We fund what fits.
We invest in what scales.
And slowly, we teach ourselves to pursue the viable instead of the vital.
It’s a loop.
We use the same logic that created the problem to try and solve it —
like turning carbon emissions into market credits instead of reducing them.
We don’t lack imagination.
We lack systems that are willing to invest in what imagination creates.
What if the future didn’t need a business case?
What would change if we had systems that gave people stability to care, space to think, and power to act, without needing to prove the financial upside first?
What if doing the right thing was just… the way the system worked?
We don’t need to abandon financial thinking.
But we must stop letting it be the only filter deciding what moves forward.
Real progress starts when we redefine what success looks like — and who gets to define it.
Closing thought
The real challenge isn’t just designing better solutions.
It’s having the courage to redesign the systems that quietly decide which ideas are allowed to live.And that redesign starts with understanding.
Because we can’t solve what we don’t yet see — and too often, what holds us back is hidden in plain sight.
Why this matters to me
I help teams in the finance sector turn complex digital, risk, and compliance transformations into clear strategy.
But what draws me to this work is the opportunity to unravel the system—to help people see what’s beneath the surface and explore how value is defined, measured, and moved.
Finance is one of the most influential systems we have — it touches how we invest, what we prioritize, and how we define success.
If we can create deeper understanding here — and rethink how we define value — we have a real chance to shift the system from the inside out.
That’s what drives me.
Because once we understand the system, we can start to change it.