Episode 5. What is Systems Thinking?

Last week, we defined integrity as the state of being whole or undivided. This week, I want to talk about integrity practically as it relates to our systems. We’ll define systems and systems theory, and discuss what it means to be a systems thinker. Let’s talk!

A system is defined as:

• a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole.

• a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method. organized planning or behaviour; orderliness.

We can rearrange the definitions and say that a system is an organized, interconnected network of parts that work together as a whole. A system is working effectively and efficiently when all parts serve the whole.

Systems Theory understands that no system exists in isolation. It examines connected systems to observe and understand the effects of each on another, as well as how they form and affect larger systems.

I read a post this week that referred to a Systems Thinker as something different than a Components Thinker. People in the comments seemed to agree with the implied definition, using Systems Thinker as a synonym for Big Picture Thinker. Now, I don’t know who decided that was the case. I call myself a systems thinker because of what my understanding of a system is. From my perspective, if you don’t understand the components of a system at least at a basic level, you don’t understand that system, so you can’t really be a systems thinker.

Systems Thinking is about considering how relationships between parts of a system affect the outcome of the system. While you may not have the depth of knowledge of every system, you must consider the components of a system to be a systems thinker.

Let’s take an example in the workplace as an enterprising employee.

As a systems thinker, when I met or spoke to someone new in the company, I always asked them the same first questions:

1) What’s your work/education background?

2) How did you get here (both career and company)?

3) What do you do every day in your current position?

4) What’s the best and worst part of your job?

5) What are you working on?

6) What are your biggest challenges?

7) What tools do you use the most?

Let’s first talk about what information I got from these questions. I’m going to be very detailed, but of course not exhaustive. These are just examples of the kind of information I’m getting in these conversations.

How much experience do they have? Is their domain knowledge deep or wide in this role? How reliable is their output – that is, when I observe their work, how certain can I be that they exemplify what is good work in their position in order to understand the position better? What other things are they interested in, and how do they see that relating to current work? Do we have past experiences/knowledge in common that can help me understand them or the work they do more easily?

How did you discover this career? What actually works to help transition from one career or job title to another? How can I use that to help coach others in their career journeys? How much of what you have enjoyed in the past is in this job? What drew you to this company? How aligned do you feel with the company mission? How closely do you feel the company executes your understanding of that mission? How aligned is the company execution with your values?

What specific tasks do you carry out? Why is that important? How are your tasks similar, different, related to, tasks that others in the company are doing? How do you feel about how you spend your time?

More information about how you feel about how you spend your time in your current role. Does it align with how you’ve spent time in this role at other companies? Is that better or worse? What’s your current value hierarchy?

What has their team decided is important? How does it align with company goals? How do your tasks align with your goal?

How connected are you with your team? How connected are you with the rest of the company? Is there anyone else in the company with similar challenges to you? Is there anyone in the company who has information or solutions that may help or solve your challenge(s)?

How much is the company investing in tooling? Do we have redundant tools? What does each tool do? Where do we have data, what is it, where does it come from, and what does it mean (connected to the role and what they do all day)?

At the end of this conversation, I have one data point (or really, many data points) on the individual person system, the team system, and the company system. I can have this conversation in as little as 15 minutes, but usually because I’m asking, people are happy to give up to an hour of their time each time. Why? Because in the process of the conversation, I’ve understood them really well, understood some of their challenges, helped them solve a problem or find another person with more information about a question they have… We’ve also built a relationship because it has been a conversation. I share what I have in common with them or I put them in touch with others who have something in common with them.

The purpose is to both understand how the individual parts of the company system contribute to the overall outcome of the company system, and also to ensure that related parts of individual systems are communicating with each other. By aligning individuals within teams, then teams within departments, then departments within the organization, each bit of work scales to make powerful impact.

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What does this have to do with integrity? I’ll give an example with a couple of anecdotal metaphors.

I was chosen to represent support staff to our director. A couple of people were worried that the representative would be a “rat”. I said, I’m not taking and reporting individual temperatures. I’m noting individual temperatures, aggregating them, and reporting the temperature of the room. The thing is, you learn more about the room by noticing how the reader responds to the temperature than you get by taking any single temperature.

If you’re a regular baker, you want to get consistent results from your bakes. One obvious variable is temperature. You can just turn the dial on and hope for the best, but most bakers know that ovens are variable. So you want an oven thermometer. But they also know that the way ovens are made, there are hot spots. You can measure that with several oven thermometers, but an easier, more efficient and highly visual way is to line a baking sheet the size of your oven with white bread and turn your oven on. You’ll instantly see where the hot (and cool) spots are. If you don’t, you’ll get crap results and end up with burnt cake.

What does this have to do with integrity? You are a system. Inside of you are smaller systems and each of those systems has a goal. When you act outside of integrity, you’re steamrolling one of your systems. In a company, if an individual or team acts outside of their integrity by doing tasks that don’t feel meaningful or valuable to them, you notice disconnection in the products. In both cases, you’ll observe some really weird outcomes that don’t seem to make sense for the individual or the team. You’ll see people doing a lot of things and working really hard with not a lot to show for it.

This is just a peek into how my mind works when I coach teams and families toward value-based outcome-driven action. When you’re aligned, smaller and smaller actions are amplified to larger and larger results. If you’re in a family or work team and you’re not sure how other parts of your team contribute to your outcomes, or if you’re just completing to-dos with no clear goals at all, you need radical alignment coaching. To schedule a free first session, contact me at coaching@dannisimon.com.