I know this could be earth shattering and mind blowing but life is a system. Think about how your body works. Everything is interrelated and functions very systematically. The government is a system. Your company is a system. Even your family life is a system even though it may be chaotic. By having a systems mindset, it changes how you should look at your company.
What about your employees? Are they really a system? You have an onboarding process which is a system but what about how you manage them? Within this paradigm lies your companies culture but is that really a system?
Too often we look to our relationships, feelings and emotions to guide how people are managed instead of taking a step back and looking at the system. Thinking systematically was first introduced by Donella Meadows in her book Thinking in Systems. She looked at big things like war and poverty and problem solving both globally and personally. These challenges are failures of systems and cannot be solved by only fixing one part of it but need to be wholistic to fix.
Your business has challenged every day which often cannot be solved by just fixing one aspect but need to be looked at through a systems lens. To make your company better you need to understand that everything is a system. To improve you need to know how each part of the system fit to be able to diagnose where your challenges are. If you are not able to do that you need to figure out where the points are that are breaking down or where there is a challenge. This is the point that managing people often falls.
As an owner or manager, it is hard to see the difference between systems and behavior. Donella Meadows writes.
“Once we see the relationship between structure and behavior, we can begin to understand how systems work, what makes them produce poor results, and how to shift them into better behavior patterns.”
So, is your company growing or is it stagnant? Are there areas that need to be improved? Understanding first that there are areas that need to improve you are identifying the hinge points that need to be evaluated and worked through to improve. Here are three areas that I see most organizations can improve in with systems thinking
Communicating the vision –
Employees want to know where they are headed and what’s in it for them. Part of what’s in it for them is to be a part of something. Something that they believe in and can pour their hearts into. In a survey of employees, the second most important motivator was “interesting work that motivates and completes me.” Why should they work at your company? What is the thing that motivates you? Plan your communication and do it often.
Staff development –
This is a big motivator for employees and should be something that you systematize. That saying that what gets scheduled gets done really applies here. Find ways to engage your employees through increased knowledge and information. Treat them to a lunch and learn or pay for some specialized training. By pouring into your staff they will be feel valued and will be a better employee.
Living your companies’ culture –
Going back to the last point, are you learning and growing? Stagnant companies are an expression of a stagnant boss or manager. Besides learning and growing another way to live your companies’ culture is to value and empower your people. This brings us full circle with communicating vision. People want to be a part of something and to engage in making a difference. Give them more responsibility. Grow your employees and work yourself out of a job!
Dig deep into the system and root out the behavior. What other systems do you see that might be a result of a behavior?