Are You Stuck in Traffic… or Are You Traffic?
Featuring Helge Tennø, “The Systems Navigator” | Systems Thinking & Strategy Expert | Former CX Leader at MSD
Systems Thinking for Career & Business Impact with Helge Tennø
A Black Sherpa 29k Club Masterclass Recap
“Are you stuck in traffic… or are you traffic?”
“At higher levels, the focus shifts… from pure quality to alignment and influence.”
“The goal of the map isn’t the map. It’s the clarity it gives you.”
Before a single slide appeared, our latest 29k Club masterclass already felt like a family reunion.
Patricia’s beach background got roasted (“That is cheating!”), someone shouted out Omar like he was a celebrity (“My guy!”), and the chat was alive before the session had even begun.
That’s the thing about the 29k Club:
It doesn’t feel like entering a webinar.
It feels like walking into a room where people are genuinely glad you came.
And into that warmth stepped Helge Tennø… strategist, systems thinker, and someone with a rare ability to zoom out, connect dots, and make the invisible mechanics of organisations suddenly visible.
What followed was one of our most energising, perspective-shifting sessions yet.
Why Systems Thinking matters (Especially now)
Across industries, people feel this quiet frustration:
“I’m doing good work but nothing moves.”
“The org chart says one thing, but the real influence lives somewhere else.”
“I’m told to ‘be more strategic’ but nobody explains how.”
Systems thinking gives us a way to understand and navigate that reality with far more confidence.
Helge explained why this skill set is exploding in relevance.
1. AI handles the What. Humans need to handle the Why.
AI and dashboards can tell you what happened.
Only humans can interpret the messy, emotional, relational forces underneath.
Systems thinking sharpens your ability to see:
why projects slow down,
why certain people accelerate,
why decisions move the way they do,
why timing matters more than effort.
It’s the human edge in an AI-shaped world.
2. Workplaces are more interconnected than ever
Helge showed us a “spaghetti diagram”… a system map of mental health and addiction services.
It looked chaotic.
Until you realised… it’s not inaccurate.
It’s honest.
Our workplaces often look the same:
Legacy processes layered with new tech
Multiple stakeholders
Different agendas
Delays and information gaps
Decisions influenced by people you didn’t even know were in the picture
Linear thinking can’t solve non-linear problems.
Systems thinking can.
3. Many of the tools we use are outdated
AIDA (1898).
Old funnel models.
Simplistic customer journeys from the ’90s.
These tools were brilliant in their time.
But the world has since evolved:
smartphones
social platforms
on-demand everything
AI
agile working
distributed decision-making
Yet many companies still use simplified models that ignore the complexity their people actually face.
Systems thinking is not about making things complicated.
It’s about not pretending they’re simple.
The “Stupidly Simple” Systems Thinking question
Helge’s favourite starting point:
“Put your goal in the centre and ask:
what leads to more or less of this?”
That’s it.
Systems thinking is simpler than it looks: just map the forces of influence and ask how A affects B
From there, map out:
the forces of influence (people, processes, culture, timing, tech)
the relationships between them
the reinforcing or balancing loops
the delays that distort decision-making
The map doesn’t have to be pretty.
It just has to be real.
And the real value isn’t the map itself… it’s the clarity you gain.
The moment that hit everyone:
The myth of “Quality is enough”
Helge reflected on an early career belief:
“I thought my job was to deliver the highest possible quality.
At leadership level, I realised the focus doesn’t disappear…
but it expands.
Leaders balance quality with alignment, influence, timing, and interconnected impact.”
This wasn’t cynical.
It was a truth many people feel but rarely hear spoken.
At senior levels, success becomes:
relational
contextual
cross-functional
timing-sensitive
dependent on how you move within the system
Your brilliance matters.
But how your brilliance fits into the wider system matters even more.
When the system map changes everything
The Pharma example everyone reacted to
Helge shared a map showing the 45+ influences that shape a physician’s prescribing decisions.
The sales rep… once believed to be the key influence… was just one small node among many others.
It was humbling.
But also liberating.
Because the same is true for career progression:
You might be over-focusing on one influence (like your manager or project)
when your success is shaped by many more forces you haven’t mapped yet.
Visibility, timing, reputation, relationships, cycles, sponsorship, peers, moments of impact… they’re all part of the system.
Seeing the whole picture changes the way you act within it.
When Helge explained Starbucks, everything clicked
He walked us through Starbucks’ “4-minute experience” goal… the idea that from entering the store to the moment you get your drink, the experience should take no more than four minutes.
But achieving that isn’t about baristas being faster.
It’s shaped by:
store layout
seating availability
queue design
barista skill
batching technologies
staffing levels
peak-hour strategy
It’s a system.
Careers are no different.
You don’t “win” by being faster, louder, or more impressive in isolation.
It’s the interplay of multiple forces.
The Green–Yellow–Red people framework
(One of the session’s most practical tools)
Helge shared a simple way to navigate organisational influence:
Green people: already aligned, supportive
Yellow people: on the fence, need context, watching what happens
Red people: not aligned right now; their priorities are elsewhere
The strategy?
Start with the greens.
Build momentum.
Let the yellows come along.
Don’t exhaust yourself trying to convert the reds.
This alone can save people months of emotional labour.
Who are your greens, yellows, and reds right now… and how would your energy shift if you focused where the momentum already is?
Questions from the room (And why they mattered)
The chat was buzzing. Here were some standout moments that made the session feel beautifully human:
“How do you align legacy systems with AI and modern tools?”
→ Helge showed how system maps reveal where foundational fixes must happen before chasing shiny innovations.“When do you know your map is ‘good enough’?”
→ “When it stops giving you new insight and starts overwhelming you.”“How do you influence people comfortable with old ways of working?”
→ “You start with the green people. You hitch your wagon to bigger initiatives already in motion.”
These weren’t theoretical questions.
They were the real challenges people in the room are navigating daily.
Practical lessons for career & leadership growth
(Straight from the Masterclass)
For Individuals
Move from events to systems
(“This happened” → “What are the forces shaping this?”)Map your career ecosystem, not just your goals.
Identify who is aligned, who is neutral, and who simply has different priorities.
Translate complexity into simple, strategic narratives.
Use systems thinking as a private clarity tool… not a presentation tool.
For Leaders
Understand the system your people operate in, not just their behaviours.
Stop oversimplifying problems for comfort.
Reward people who join dots across silos… they increase organisational intelligence.
Map stakeholder influence intentionally.
Build shared understanding; clarity reduces friction.
Why systems Thinking is a human skill, not a technical one
When we ignore systems:
People blame themselves for systemic patterns
Underrepresented talent carries extra invisible labour
Leaders become reactive, not strategic
Teams end up fighting symptoms instead of causes
When we see systems:
Clarity replaces confusion
People feel empowered, not inadequate
Leaders make better decisions
Teams collaborate with less friction
Strategy becomes a shared language
This isn’t just a professional advantage.
It’s a psychological one.
The Black Sherpa 29k Club difference
The 29k Club exists to give ambitious, often under represented professionals clarity, confidence, and community… the three things that transform careers.
This masterclass delivered on all three:
Clarity in understanding organisational systems
Confidence through practical tools and mindset shifts
Community through shared insight, questions, humour, and vulnerability
This is what we’re building:
A place where the unwritten rules are decoded openly and collectively.
A leadership challenge for the week ahead
Reflect on these questions:
1. Where in your career do you feel “stuck in traffic”?
And what changes when you see yourself as part of the system… not the problem?
2. What’s one meaningful goal you’re working toward?
What leads to more or less of that goal?
Sketch the ecosystem around it.
3. Who are your green, yellow, and red people right now?
What happens when you start with the green?
Map something today.
It doesn’t have to be perfect… it just has to start.
Climb steady 🖤
I’m Yam – Founder of The Black Sherpa
Founder | Strategist | Speaker | Host of The Black Sherpa Podcast
I founded The Black Sherpa to create a world where talent rises on merit and no one’s potential is held back by bias or barriers.
Through bold strategy, storytelling, and our flagship community, The 29k Club - I help professionals grow with confidence and support leaders to build cultures that truly live their values.
Let’s connect and build a future where inclusion powers performance, and leadership reflects the world we serve.