Can You Actually Do Anything About It? Let’s Check the Science.

In 1975 (the year after a certain rowdy tourism strategist was born), a psychologist named Martin Seligman published research on what happens when effort and outcome don't match.

When people experience enough situations where their actions don’t change the result… they stop trying. (modern phrase: quiet quitting)

Because their brain learns that action is irrelevant.

He called it learned helplessness.

A few years later, researchers like Deci and Ryan expanded on this, finding that people stay motivated when three things are present:

• a sense of control

• a sense of competence

• a clear connection between what they do and what actually happens next

Remove those…and even very capable people start to disengage.

Now, let’s bring that into a modern workplace.

A high-functioning one, on paper.

One where:

• responsibility is high

• authority is shared

• outcomes are influenced by politics, policy, markets, and public opinion

• success is measured… somewhat vibes-based depending on the week

Sound familiar?

Across experience levels, you'll hear:

Early career: “Wait… is this how this works?”

Mid-career: “…does anything I do move the needle?”

Same question: Can I actually do anything?

Let’s stay with the science.

Exhibit A: When Systems Blur Cause and Effect

In healthy systems, effort connects to outcome.

You do something → something happens → you adjust.

That feedback loop is what builds confidence, skill, and momentum.

But in complex environments like tourism, that loop gets fuzzy.

• You can do excellent work and still get a messy outcome.

• You can make a smart decision and watch it get overridden, diluted, or delayed.

• You can execute the strategy and still be measured against something you didn’t control.

Over time, your brain starts asking:

“Are we… just along for the ride?”

Exhibit B: The Dip No One Names

There’s a very specific phase in a career where this hits hardest.

You’re experienced enough to see the patterns. But not positioned enough to fully change them.

You can spot the inefficiencies. You understand the politics. You know what a better version could look like.

And yet… you’re navigating around it instead of through it.

This is where people burn out from misalignment between insight and influence.

That gap is exhausting.

Exhibit C: So the Brain Adapts

When that gap stays open too long, people adjust.

Subtly.

• They stop pushing certain ideas.

• They let things go that they would’ve challenged before.

• They conserve energy instead of investing it.

From the outside, it looks like disengagement.

“Let me not care too much about something I can’t move.”

Again, not a personality flaw.

A rational response to an inconsistent system.

Exhibit D: Where Your Actual Power Lives

Here’s a little secret:

• You may not control the system.

• But you are not without influence.

Even in complex environments like tourism, individuals shape:

• what gets said out loud vs kept quiet • what becomes “normal” vs what gets questioned • what gets momentum vs what quietly dies in a meeting • how clearly (or vaguely) reality is described

If you’re early in your career:

Your advantage is fresh pattern recognition. You see things before you’ve been trained to ignore them.

If you’re mid-late career:

Your advantage is context and credibility. You know how to name things in a way that actually lands.

Exhibit E: The Risk Isn’t Powerlessness

The real risk isn’t that you can’t do anything.

It’s that you slowly adapt to things you once would’ve challenged, that you get so good at navigating the system that you stop questioning it, that you trade clarity for comfort.

Conclusion

So…

Can you actually do anything?

Yes.

But not always in the clean, linear way we pretend work happens.

Your role isn’t just to execute.

It’s to:

• Notice patterns

• Name reality (even when it’s inconvenient)

• Decide where your energy actually moves something and where it doesn’t

And hold that line.

Because once your brain decides your actions don’t matter…it’s very hard to convince it otherwise.

I’m Jenn Barbee, and if you’ve been wondering whether it’s you or the system...it’s not you.