Systems Thinking

Performance Improvement and Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is not new, and it has nothing to do with computers. The principles of systems thinking have been known and adopted for hundreds (even thousands) of years. Famous-thinkers through history include Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.

W. Edwards Deming – a renowned management theorist and systems thinker – held that 95% of performance issues are attributable to the “system” (work design, structure, management, processes, technology, measures, customers, etc.) and only 5% are attributable to individuals.

Systems-thinking helps us to see the inter-relationships between things, as well as the underlying patterns and root-causes of symptoms and problems that occur everyday in our organisations. it’s about finding practical, effective and sustainable solutions to a myriad of real-world problems.

At Watt Works, our approaches are designed to deliver real and significant – yet sustainable – performance improvement. We use “systems thinking” because it means we are better able to really understand what makes things the way they are. And, because we understand the constraints, boundaries and connections that together create a specific situation, we are uniquely placed to extend your thinking beyond the usually accepted parameters in order to ensure you reach your potential.

We ensure that any interventions we provide address the real underlying causes, rather than attempting to deal with symptoms. Systems thinking helps us ask better questions, because we are able to focus in on the whole system rather than one specific part of it. We provide changes that leverage existing resources wherever possible, and we avoid quick fix solutions. We are committed to enhancing the long-term viability of our client.

You’ll find more information on systems thinking below.

You may also be interested in reading our 7-day series on systems thinking here …
Systems Thinking 101: The Magic of Systems Thinking

What is a System?

A system is:

“An interconnected set of elements that is coherently organises in a way that achieves something”.

- Donella H. Meadows

Many things in your life are systems. Your own body, for example, is a perfect example of a system comprising a digestive system, immune system, temperature regulation system etc. Other systems might include a car, a forest, a school, or an organisation. Systems are all around you.

What is Systems Thinking?

Peter Senge ( a renowned management theorist and systems thinker) defined 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.”

Systems-thinking helps us to see the inter-relationships between things, as well as the underlying patterns and root-causes of symptoms and problems that occur everyday in our organisations. It involves looking at the world in a particular way, and with a set of principles in mind. Systems-thinking can provide insight into why things work they do, and more usefully, why it is that some things don’t work.

Systems-thinkers have a variety of tools at their disposal to tease apart the relationships and dynamics that exist within a system to really understand what is going on – often revealing unique insights as to the nature of the system and what interventions are required to bring the system back into balance.

Seeing The Bigger Picture

The modern world is only beginning to understand the relevance of systems-thinking. Now, school children are routinely taught about how complex systems such as climate change work and how small changes in the balance of things can have disproportionate effects and unintended consequences in other areas. Thirty or forty years ago these ideas were simply unthinkable to the mainstream. Systems-thinking is, in fact, now becoming mainstream. However, that doesn’t mean that its value or importance is any less significant.

It involves looking at the world in a particular way, and with a set of principles in mind. Systems-thinking can provide insight into why things work they do, and more usefully, why it is that some things don’t work. Systems-thinking can be a little like having your own special pair of X-Ray spectacles that you can choose to put on at any time.

The traditional approach to complex situations and problems is to focus on specific parts of the system in the (false) hope that somehow changing one small part of the system will “fix” the problem. This “reductionist” approach is not all bad though. After all, the reductionist approach inherent in the scientific method has served humanity well – so far, at least.

However, as Peter Senge said in his book The Fifth Discipline, “dividing an elephant in half does not produce two elephants.” As we have already said, systems-thinking encourages us to look at the system as a whole. In the example used by Senge, as Dennis Sherwood succinctly states in Seeing the Forest For the Trees (A Manager’s Guide to Applying Systems-Thinking), this act [of cutting the elephant in half] “results in the transformation of a system that used to work very well indeed into sub-systems that don’t work at all.”

Where you can enhance the integrity of the system to ensure that the system becomes self-organising, self-repairing, resilient and capable of learning how to learn …. all of these things will significantly improve the ability of your system (team, department, organisation etc.) to perform effectively.

Benefits of a Systems Thinking Approach

There are a number of benefits to systems-thinking, and the associated processes of attempting to understand and map the systems we are concerned with.

A few of these (summarised from Dennis Sherwood’s Seeing the Forest for the Trees) are:

Encourages a holistic view, and has a tendency to avoid short-termism,

Makes explicit our mental models (that in turn helps us understand how we perceive and represent the world around us),

Allows our mental models to be shared and communicated,

Provides a means of exploring potential decisions, so their consequence can be anticipated in advance,

Gives us the best possible chance of making decisions that are likely to work in the long-term.

 The real beauty of systems-thinking is that is allows you to see the whole system for what it is … warts and all. The knowledge that this provides can reveal a variety of new and interesting opportunities for change.

Sound intriguing?