3 Questions to Close the Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Tokyo is one of the most structured environments I have ever experienced.
From high above the city, I watched people moving like tiny dots between buildings. On the metro, thousands move together quietly. Streets are remarkably clean. Smoking is restricted to designated areas. There are rules, systems and social norms shaping how people move and behave.
And then, right in the middle of all this order, you can walk into the forest surrounding Meiji Shrine and feel your pace change completely.
Tokyo brought me back to a question I first became interested in as an architecture student:
How much do the structures around us shape what we actually do?
Back then, I believed architecture could change the way people think, feel and behave.
Later, I became less convinced.
A beautifully designed airport may or may not transform us. Most of us are simply trying to find the gate, get a child to the bathroom or catch a flight.
But years later, through coaching and behavioural science, I am returning to that question from a different perspective.
The built environment is not the only structure that shapes us. We also live within structures of knowledge, habits, expectations and beliefs. And how we move within them shapes what we actually do.
Problem: Knowing Doesn't Automatically Become Doing
We already know an extraordinary amount about what would make our lives better.
We know we should sleep more, move more, set boundaries, delegate, build relationships, have difficult conversations or finally make the career move we have been postponing.
Yet knowing often fails to become doing.
So, what happens in between?
Angela Duckworth's new book "Situated" helped me connect some of these dots as a starting point.
In Grit, Duckworth explored the internal qualities behind exceptional achievement: passion and perseverance. In Situated, she widens the lens.
What surrounds us matters too: our physical environment, the people around us, mentors, peers and culture.
Michael Phelps is her compelling example. His extraordinary ability and determination mattered enormously. But so did the environments around him: coaches, training facilities, teammates and a mother who believed in him and supported him.
Phelps is an extraordinary example, but the principle applies to all of us: what surrounds us influences what we are able to do.
Insight: Our Physical and Mental Environment Carry the Behavioural Load
We tend to look inside ourselves for the explanation: more motivation, more discipline, more willpower.
But our systems and situations carry a huge part of the behavioural load.
Knowing is personal. Doing is situated.
And that gives us another place to look when what we know repeatedly fails to become what we do.
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3 Questions Worth Asking
💎 What do I already know, but consistently fail to do? Move more. Delegate. Set boundaries...
💎 What in my current environment reinforces the behaviour I want to change? My schedule. My workspace. The people around me...
💎 What could I redesign to make the desired behaviour easier? Make the beginning easier. Block the time. Change the setup. Ask for support.
A Human Performance Architecture Reflection:
This is where my old world of architecture and my current work with human behaviour are beginning to meet again.
We design buildings and cities that shape how we live.
I am becoming increasingly curious about how we can design the conditions around the way we want to live, work and perform.
Environment is only one part of that equation. There are other forces that shape the space between knowing and doing and I intend to keep exploring them here.
FROM INDIVIDUAL CHANGE to ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
If you are interested in what happens to human behaviour when the environment around us changes at work, this is also a conversation we will continue on 13 October.
Together with Organisational Change Expert Cornelia Walter, I will be hosting our free webinar: The Unspoken Truths About Change Management in 2026
We will explore what really happens to people during organisational change and what leaders can do differently when human behaviour does not follow the change plan as neatly as expected.
13 October 2026 | 17:30–19:00 CET | Online
Warmly,
Dilek
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