Let’s improve the system – A Systems Thinking model of Leadership

Published: Thu, 4th Jun 2009

Let’s improve the system – A Systems Thinking model of Leadership

John Seddon on Leadership

“Managers have to change their thinking to be able to produce organisations capable of continuous evolutionary change”

In the middle of a crisis the absence of leadership can quickly become a live issue. And yet what we mean when we invoke the term is hotly disputed. As each theorist proposes their own definition, detractors queue-up. The arguments go back and forth along well-worn nature/nurture lines. From leaders being born with special skills and traits, to a series of styles that can be taught and learned. What then, is leadership all about?

At Vanguard we argue that systems thinking avoids many of these old arguments. Put simply, the previous theories are actually symptoms and consequences of how managers think about work. Thinking that has resulted in the creation of hierarchical and rigidly stratified top-down organizations (a method of management called command and control). These are creations that resist the evolutionary change required to be both effective (doing the right things), and efficient (doing the right things right).

The systems thinkers at Vanguard have learnt that when managers learn different ways of thinking, the resulting organisations are able to sidestep these old arguments. Jeremy Cox, public sector lead at Vanguard is clear that where management thinking remains trapped in a command and control paradigm, everything that is created is stillborn. Managers have to change their thinking to be able produce organisations capable of continuous evolutionary change.

Command and Control Thinking		Vanguard’s Systems Thinking
Top-down	Perspective	Outside-in
Functional specialisation	Design	Demand, value and flow
Separated from work	Decision-making	Integrated with work
Budget, targets, standards, activity and productivity	Measurement	Designed against purpose, demonstrate variation
Extrinsic	Motivation	Intrinsic
Manage budgets and the people	Management Ethic	Act on the system
Contractual	Attitude to customers	What matters…?
Contractual	Attitude to suppliers	Partnering and co-operation
Change by project/initiative	Approach to change	Adaptive, integral

The command and control approach embodies a mind-set where managers view their role as sitting atop an organisational hierarchy. A mental model where the right information flows upwards, and the right decisions are made on the basis of this information, leading to the right instructions that flow neatly downwards to be converted into actions (managers as brains and workers as bodies). In this fantasy of power, change happens smoothly. The reality of course is exactly the opposite.

Jeremy argues that this thinking ensures that most managers are absolutely disconnected from the reality of their business. Often only becoming aware of a problem when it is too late. To affect a change in thinking, ‘leaders need to be helped to reconnect with the work that they have been separated from for too long’. Once managers become involved and learn new principles of work, the change in thinking that ensues leads to continuous streams of learning and insight. Many leaders later understand this thinking transition as the most profound experiences of their working lives. They begin to see the organisation anew, and begin to understand complex relationships between the parts that had previously been hidden to them.

The systems thinking perspective upon leadership focuses upon learning and understanding and this is reflected in the approach to leadership:

1. Convert principles into practice

Vanguard consultant John Little argues that what managers learn is that to lead they must thoroughly understand the principles, and know how to convert theory and knowledge into practice.

2. Working on the work, in the work with the worker

To give energy to the system, leaders must get out of the office and personally lead bits of work. It is what Owen Buckwell, Head of Housing at Portsmouth City Council calls working in the ‘muck and the bullets’. You’ll often find Owen out of his office with a small rucksack on his back, working with the workers in different parts of the organisation.

To do this properly requires the application of method to achieve understanding. Managers don’t go into the work to tell people what to do. Instead the systems thinker John Seddon has described their new role as ‘working on the work, in the work with the workers’. A leaders job is to act on and improve the system, something that can’t be done from an office. It requires a thorough knowledge of method and confidence that improvement work is firmly designed against demand.

3. Be purposeful and understand purpose

Have a clear understanding of purpose. The purpose of each individual system and how each relates to the other. Then ensure that everybody understands what each system’s purpose is and what their purpose is in relation to the system.

Understanding isn’t achieved by writing it down as part of a mission statement of vision. Each manager and member of staff must know and understand what this means. It’s a fundamental point. Without knowing why you are there, your actions may harm the system and impede its performance.

4. Use measures correctly

To make the correct choices about improvement, to experiment and improve, it is necessary that all decisions are based upon data. Often this comes in the form of measures related to purpose.

A key function of the leader then is to ensure that measures are being used appropriately throughout the organisation (from board members to front line staff and managers). This includes ensuring that everybody understands variation, and how to understand control charts. They must also understand what the tests of a good measure are. No good being able to interpret a control chart if what it is telling you isn’t related to the things that matter.

5. Protect flow

Another is linked to protecting the system from things that would disrupt flow. Now in the command and control paradigm, top-down organisations are designed upon the need for control. Control becomes its de-facto purpose (literally keeping people in line).

In systems thinking organisations, protecting and improving flow is the most important objective. Anything that hinders flow must be removed. It’s the job of the leader (all leaders and all staff) to try and remove impediments to flow.

6. Be honest and open

In command and control organisations many people spend their time putting a good face on the information provided (spinning).

Improvement requires honest and open reflection. For systems thinkers these are important commodities. Organisations designed against demand should see reduced the levels of conflict. Honesty and openness, backed up with data should aid reflection and achieve results. Mistakes are okay, especially where people learn from them.

7. Ensure that you remain relevant

Leading pieces of work in each system, understanding purpose and understanding performance in the system most come hand-in-hand with a regular re-evaluation of purpose. John Little’s favourite story is of Blockbuster and I Love Film. Blockbuster thought that their purpose was to rent-out videos from stores. I Love Film understood that it involved selling entertainment, and freed from the constraints of video shops, quickly captured a large slice of the market.

Ensure that there is a clear relationship to your strategic purpose and day-to-day operations.

8. Create curiosity

Systems thinking is just that, a thinking thing. Helping people become curious and learning by doing involves leaders designing learning cycles for staff. You have to help people get it.

howard.clark@vanguardconsult.co.uk