Business System:

Business Process Management

Systems Thinking

Focusing On the Whole, Not the Parts, of a Complex System

"Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots."  

– Peter Senge

System Defined

A system is an entity which maintains its existence and functioning as a whole for some purpose through the mutual interaction of its parts.

Systems Thinking Defined

Systems thinking is your ability to things as a whole (or holistically) including the many different types of relationships between the many elements in a complex system. "Systems thinking is a sensibility – for the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character."⁷

Growing Demand for Systems Thinking

"End-to-end business processes are dynamic systems, but today's business professionals are generally not trained in general systems thinking. Too often constrained to a perspective limited by ingrained business practices, rigid scripts and structured input-output work, few professionals have a wide-angle view of, or experience dealing with, end-to-end business processes."²

The Goal of Systems Thinking

The goal of systems thinking is to manage the rapidly growing complexity of the worlds of business and technology. The task of a business architect and a process manager is to create systems, within a sensibly structured business, that empowers employees and enables people to achieve higher productivity and greater competitive advantage... More

The Focus of Systems Thinking

Systems thinking "focuses on the whole, not the parts, of a complex system. It concentrates on the interfaces and boundaries of components, on their connections and arrangement, on the potential for holistic systems to achieve results that are greater than the sum of the parts. Mastering systems thinking means overcoming the major obstacles to building the process-managed enterprise – for every business process is a whole system."²

Systems Thinking and Modern Management

Systems thinking characterizes many of the world's leading executives. It is a formal discipline of management science that deals with the whole business system and in terms of the interconnections and interactions of its parts.

"Many managers fail to see the forest for the trees. This is not an either/or problem. The trick is to see both the forest and the trees. Systems thinking is a methodology for doing both simultaneously. It's more than a methodology, it's like learning a new language and takes nearly as long as learning a foreign language to achieve maturity. The human mind is notoriously poor at predicting the performance characteristics of multivariable systems. Systems thinking can help. What you can train your mind to do is to look for counterintuitive leverage points and to construct scenarios where results beyond the obvious are possible," says Jim Botkin.⁸

NLP Solutions

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) teaches you to habitually take a systems view of things – to look at the different elements in a situation as parts of a system which functions for good or ill. This system involves people and a sequence of events, thoughts, feelings, actions and interactions. Once you understand how the system is working – for or against you – you have a means of structuring things differently in the future... More

Case in Point: 10 Strategic Management Schools

Ten narrow strategic management concepts typically dominate current thinking on strategy. These range from the early Design and Planning schools to the more recent Learning, Cultural and Environmental Schools.¹ While academics and consultants keep focusing on these narrow perspectives, business managers will be better served if they strive to see the wider picture.² Some of strategic management's greatest failings, in fact, occurred when one of these concepts was taken too seriously.

Recall the story of the blind men measuring an elephant - to one, the elephant seemed "very much like a wall", and to another, grasping the elephant's trunk, it felt very much like a snake. "We are all like the blind men and the strategy process is our elephant", say Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel.³ "Everyone has seized some part or other of the animal and ignored the rest. Consultants have generally gone for the tusks, while academics have preferred to take photo safaris, reducing the animal to a static two dimensions. As a consequence, managers have been encouraged to embrace one narrow perspective or another, like the glories of planning or the wonders of core competences. Unfortunately, the process will only work for them when they deal with the entire beast, as a living organism."

The Power of Your Cross-Functional Excellence

If you build broad cross-functional expertise, no idea will be wasted! Your mind can accept only those ideas that have a frame of reference with your existing knowledge. It rejects everything else. If your knowledge is functionally focused, you'll be open to new ideas related to your functional expertise only and will miss all other learning and innovation opportunities. If you develop a broad cross-functional expertise, no new idea will be wasted. It will immediately connect with the existing knowledge and will inspire  you, energize you, and encourage your entrepreneurial creativity. The broader your net, the more fish you catch... More

 Case in Point  The Value System Analysis

Your firm's value chain links to the value chains of upstream suppliers and downstream buyers. The result is a larger stream of activities known as the value system. The development of a competitive advantage depends not only on your firm's specific value chain, but also on the value system of which your firm is a part.

Critical Thinking: Socratic Questions

Socratic questioning is at the heart of critical thinking – they enhance your critical thinking skills.

Socratic questions challenge accuracy and completeness of thinking in a way that acts to move people towards their ultimate goal... More

Effective Thinking Tests: Who owns the zebra?

1. There are five houses, each in with a front door of a different color, and inhabited by people of different nationalities, with different pets and drinks. Each person eats a different kind of food.

2. The Australian lives in the house with the red door.

3. The Italian owns the dog... More