Systems Thinking, Systems Practice

What is Systems Thinking?
Systems Thinking (ST) is a way of exploring and sharing our thoughts on what drives performance in a system.

What is a system?
A system is a collection of parts which inter-relate to function as a whole. Systems come in all sizes. I am a system. My family is a system. I am part of larger systems such as the business I work for, my local community, my country, the world.

How does Systems Thinking help us?
ST provides us with a simple language for capturing the components and relationships in a system within a diagram. These diagrams enable us to share and challenge our understanding of the way the system works. Ultimately thinking must be linked to a change in behaviour if we are to see an improvement in performance.

The Dynamic Performance Management (DPM) cycle is a means of linking systems thinking to ongoing improvement of results. The DPM cycle has four components: Observing, Thinking, Choosing and Acting.

Acting, Choosing, ThinkIng, ObserviNg = ACTION…

Let’s consider each component in turn:

Observe

The cycle usually starts with observation. That is to say with something being brought to our attention. Perhaps it is a problem or a desire to improve performance or maybe just curiosity to understand.

Good observation is about being open, receptive and attentive. It is about noticing the behaviour patterns that are happening in the world around us.

Let me illustrate this process with an example. Celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, has been actively campaigning politicians with a manifesto he has designed to tackle the UK's growing problems with obesity. Jamie’s manifesto makes the observation that “our diet is helping to turn us into one of the most obese countries in the world”. For the full manifesto see http://www.jamiesministryoffood.com/content/c4/news/jamies-manifesto.html

To do this well we have to be fully engaged. I think that this is a natural skill for a child. Watch any family with young children in a pram shopping in a supermarket. The child is wide –eyed noticing the wonder of everything around him/her. In comparison the adults often appear in a daze or they have their shopping list, rushing around pushing stuff in their trolley and then making a beeline for the check out. They are “end gaining”. That is, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible so that they can get on and do something else.

Too much fixation on goals means that we don’t notice what’s going on right now. I think that we need to try to notice more things around us. Ask “why have I been shown this?” “What can I learn from this?” “What should I do differently now?” The world is full of meaning. But we have to open our eyes and hearts and notice it.

We can use a simple chart called a behaviour over time graph (BOTG) to track the behaviour pattern we are observing.

We can plot BOTGs with objective (hard) measurements, eg blood pressure, weight, or with subjective (softer) judgements eg how energetic do I feel on a subjective scale between 1 and 10.

Continuing to develop our "obesity" example below is a BOTG of the percentage of UK adults classified as obese by year (Source: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/publications/opan09/OPAD%20Feb%202009%20final.pdf).

Think

The next stage in the cycle is “think”.