Systems Thinking as a Leadership Practice

In the complex world in which we live leaders need to be able to think systemically. The concept of systems thinking was popularised by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline(add here), describes systems thinking as “a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots.” System thinking helps to see the inter-relationships and connections that create the events occurring in our organisations. When we refer to a system we mean:

“A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.” – Answers.com

The core assumption that underlies a systemic approach, is that in this complex world, we live much of life is systemic, a mess of relationships and interaction. This means everything interacts with everything else. This makes introducing change, complex and is the reason why change often produces an array of unintended consequences, “The Law of Unintended Consequences holds that almost all human actions have at least one unintended consequence. In other words, each cause has more than one effect including unforeseen effects“. If we want different results from a situation we need to change the underlying system, which is creating the situation, and in so doing create different results. One of the best tools I use to help me see things systemically is the Iceberg Model. The iceberg model, is a common way to explain systems thinking and helps me think through complex problems, this helps me in the following way:

• To move focus away from events and symptoms and toward system structure.
• To elicit and articulate mental models, then expand them by accounting for feedback, time delays, non-linearity, and other components of complex systems.
• To develop shared mental models within teams and communities.
• To understand where leverage points are and are not.
• Better mental models lead to better decisions about how to lead the transition to sustainability.

A systems perspective is an effective means for helping leaders gain an understanding of the underlying structure that shapes their organisations. The iceberg model is illustrated below.

“A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions-as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.” – Friedrich NietzscheThe first thing to notice about the “iceberg” is that approximately two-thirds of an iceberg is under water, as the captain of the Titanic quickly discovered! The majority of the iceberg remains hidden from view beneath the water. This is true of the system we interact with daily, much of their structure remains under the water, much of the action occurs beneath the waterline. The key to navigating in systems, life and indeed icebergs, is to see the whole system. Not just the individual parts. Walking through the various layers of the iceberg we find the following:

• Events – This is the surface level of the iceberg, usually we can easily see the “events” happening, answering the question ‘what happened?’ Linear thinking causes us to see the world as a series of events. This is not a bad way to see the world, however it does not provide a leveraged way to introduce change. A fixation on events often leads to attributing cause and effects that are superficial, limiting our understanding and our ability to introduce change.
• Trends and Patterns – As we string events together we beginning to recognise trends and patterns, this provides a deeper level of understanding and along with it increased leverage, giving us the insight that ‘this event has happened before’.
• Structure – After a trend or pattern is identified, the next step is to look for the systemic dynamics that creates them. There is some interpretation and theorising needed to develop and understand the structure. However, structure needs to be assessed based-upon the information provided by the trends and patterns. The structure creates the foundation, which supports the trends and patterns, resulting in events. Structure is important as it gives us a deeper understanding of the system and can help us to predict systems behaviour.
• Mental Model – Systemic structures, in turn, are frequently held in place by the beliefs or “mental models” – beliefs may be undiscussable theories, residing in the minds of leaders, on what constitutes quality, service excellence or customer orientation. These beliefs may also affect interpersonal dynamics – such as approaches toward conflict, leadership or the best way to introduce change.

As we move down the iceberg we gain a deeper understanding of the systems and at the same time gain increased leverage for changing the system or it’s results. One of the key tools we have to help gain an understanding of a system is the art of asking questions. Using the model we can ask probing questions, moving from the level of events down through the pyramid to the mental model level, as follows:

• Ask questions to identify key events: ‘What’s happening?’ or ‘What has happened?’
• Ask questions that surface patterns of trends: ‘Has this happened before?’ or ‘Is this problem similar to other’s we’ve had?’
• Ask questions that leads to the structure: ‘What structure is driving this problem?’ ‘Why do you think that?’ ‘What effect has the delay had?’ ‘What explains this?
• Ask questions to understand belief systems and assumptions: ‘What is your understanding?’ ‘What are out beliefs about this?’ ‘What assumptions are we making and why?

Why do all this questioning and analysis you may ask. Well to identify and act upon the system’s leverage points. Leverage points are those places in a system where a small change creates substantial change. This is part science and part art and as leaders we will need to practice moving our thinking from event to structures, by improving how and what types of questions we ask. Develop a theory as to what the structure must be and the beliefs driving the structure and then take action. Realise that the parts of systems do not exist in isolation, everything is connected and little actions can have large effects. Wait for feedback and make further adjustments. For us to learn in the system we need to act.

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Strategy, Systems Thinking, Management, Change, Tool

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3. The Practice of Facilitative Leadership
4. The importance of philosophy to great leadership
5. The Practice of Mindfulness

Tagged as: Systemic