CLT will be discussing Systems Thinking, or Lean as some people call it on Monday. So I thought I'd share some my views on the subject with you today.
The big differentiator with systems thinking method is that it starts with obtaining knowledge about how your organisation is actually functioning. Other methods assume that the problem to be solved is known. But people working inside organisations often have a fragmented view of their work, unaware of how the complete system functions. They are also unlikely to have accurate data on the exact level of overall service their customers are receiving. These two factors mean that without better analysis the correct problem will not be identified.
People who have worked for many years in an organisation are naturally sceptical when it is suggested to them that they do not fully understand how their own business works or should work. It is this challenge to your assumptions about “good management” that is the hardest thing to accept. It is counter-intuitive, requiring leaders to experience it through normative learning first hand. You can’t lean this from reading.
The starting point is to assume that your organisation is full of waste. The need is to identify this waste so it can be removed. This removal of waste is how the apparently conflicting goals of cutting costs, improving service and having happier staff are achieved.
While there are many different types and flavours of management, the dominant model in the UK’s public sector can be termed ‘command and control’. This approach does work but it is inherently very wasteful. If you have spent your working life in a command and control environment you will probably assume there is no other way to manage. It then is logical for you to try to improve results by just being better at ‘command and control’. Unfortunately applying more of the same usually makes matters worse.
The key difference is that “command and control” organisations are driven from the top. A goal is set of say 3% cost reduction (Gershon Review, 2003) or of using IT to improve efficiency (Varney Review, 2006) and the organisation is obliged to respond to achieve the arbitrary target. The problem is that the target is set by people separate from the work and with no knowledge of how the work is carried out. Instead of engaging the workforce, a premium is placed on their compliance and how they perform against the target. This channels their ingenuity away from serving customers to achieving the target. The staff constantly look upwards for direction rather than outwards to their customers. This is the root cause of much bad service and low levels of innovation in the public sector.
Systems Thinking is a profoundly different way of seeing the world that is diametrically opposed to command and control, reductionist approaches to management. Seddon (2007) summarise it like this:
This systems thinking approach is continually developing, having evolved from over 20 years experience of interventions in the private sector and 10 years experience of public sector service organisations.
Organisations and people who become interested in systems thinking have discovered it to be a powerful method for radically transforming the way that they work. Many have found this journey to be the most stimulating experience of their careers.
Systems thinking can often seem controversial and uncomfortable as it challenges many of the core paradigms of management. This is because once a new way of seeing things that works has been learnt, it is impossible to accept management mythologies that have never delivered.
Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend and talk again next week,
Carlton.
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