Systems Thinking HR, Recruiting, Social Media Policies, Human ...

Today?s Successful Leaders

A few years back, I learned about and quickly embraced the?Systems Thinking?approach to business. I was encouraged to read a book called?The Fifth Discipline?by?Peter Senge?and I took a couple of courses related specifically to this topic. Systems thinkers look an awful lot like today?s successful leaders. Understanding that we all must work together to achieve success is part of this approach. Problems do not become an issue or represent a setback, they are merely thought of as forces of change or underlying trends.

Recognize the strength of interrelationships

The inner workings of an organization,?not individuals or a single events, are what create a true system. The ongoing process becomes the primary focus in this type of thinking. Peter Senge believes that it is often poorly designed systems which cause breakdowns or failures, not poorly motivated people. Outside forces affect the reactions and responses of the inside individuals.?This is a system.?

Force in Numbers

Tightly-focused actions have more impact and produce lasting changes if they are spun with the right force and attached to the right influence. This is called leverage. For example, sharing a new or refined business practice with the entire work group will have more impact than if each individual had been instructed separately. There is?force in numbers?- you?ve?heard this.

A couple years ago, I called a family meeting. We,?not?I?alone, had an important decision to make and I felt a conclusion could be reached with more acceptance if I leveraged it as a group decision, not mine alone or one that was easily influenced by one individual over another. We had to decide if it was better for our family to move closer to my work or continue the headlong fight to stay in our current home. We aired everyone?s opinions, looked at the 10,000-foot view and the 10-foot view. It was important to me that each voice was heard and that each brain behind the individual voices understood the pros and the cons of our decision.

My then 13-year old son came up with just as many valid points as my twenty-one year old daughter. It is never easy to make such an impactful decision. But the pros and cons list, as well as the free speech granted legal and important to this matter made a difference in how we all felt about the decision and how that decision was ultimately supported. We,?my family, are a system.

My department at work is another system, with several influences. Our company, as a whole, is yet another system, with even more influences and multiple focused actions by each department. Everything I do, whether it is driving on a busy highway or withdrawing money from my checking account, is part of another system.

When all my systems are go and functioning at their best capacity, it means my family is, my work is, my world is. ?It means I am.

It Takes More than a village, it takes a universe.
My universe.

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Tagged as: "Rayanne Thorn", @Ray_anne, blogging4jobs, Bonus Track, Business, decisions, department, family, family decisions, focus, group, group leader, interrelationships, it takes a village, leverage, life, organizational development, Peter Senge, systems' thinking, universe, Work

Article by Rayanne Thorn

Rayanne Thorn,?@ray_anne?is the Marketing Director for online recruiting software company,?Broadbean Technology.? She is also a proud?mother of?four,?happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs. ?Connect with her on?LinkedIn.??

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Source: http://www.blogging4jobs.com/business/systems-thinking/

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