Systems Thinking for the Rest Of Us

Presentation slides from the 75 minute workshop on systems thinking at the global Scrum Gathering in Minneapolis, USA, in april 2018.

Transcript

2. ”Systems Thinking For The Rest Of Us” Tobias Fors @tofo
4. ‣ Consultant and partner @ Citerus since 2000 (www.citerus.se) ‣ CST since 2006 ‣ Full stack management consultant ‣ @tofo on Twitter ‣ Blog: www.tobiasfors.se About Tobias Fors
5. So what?
6. Systems thinking helps you succeed Systems thinking Agile Scrum Lean
7. ”Hard” ”Soft”
8. A system is … Environment System Part Part Part Part Part ”A system is a whole which consists of a set of two or more parts. Each part affects the behavior of the whole, depending on how it interacts with the other parts of the system.” https://thesystemsthinker.com/from-mechanistic-to-social-systemic-thinking/
9. Practice 1: Seeing the system
10. Step 1 Pick a challenging situation at work, which you are interested in exploring
11. Step 2: Zoom out to see the system ‣ Yourself (in the middle) ‣ Other people (use distance and size appropriately) ‣ (Remember: zoom out beyond your normal view) ‣ Things ‣ Interactions (lines, thin/thick, arrows, …) ‣ Problems (illustrate graphically) ‣ Strengths ‣ Anything else ‣ Add a descriptive title
12. Partner up (~1 min each) ‣ Explain your picture briefly
13. Systems thinking
14. Changing our thinking
15. 1300 1600 1900 Age of machines Age of systems Middle Ages Renaissance Age of faith Enlightenment cross- disciplinarity required
16. Machine Age Thinking: Analysis ‣ Identify the parts ‣ Try to understand each part ‣ Merge into an understanding of the whole Whole Part Part Part Part ANALYSIS
17. When you take a system apart, it looses its essential properties, and so do its parts. HEURISTIC
18. Systems Age Thinking: Synthesis ‣ Identify the larger whole ‣ Understand the larger whole ‣ Understand our system based on the role it plays in the larger whole SYNTHESIS Whole Larger whole
20. Connecting purpose and parts EXAMPLE Source: Gojko Adzic - https://www.impactmapping.org/
21. Practice 2: 
 ”What seems to be the problem?”
22. Quick buzz with a partner (~1 min each) ‣ To what degree do people in your picture agree on what the problem is?
23. Problem as difference ”A problem is a difference between things as desired and things as perceived.”
24. The problem with ”the problem is” ”Disciplinary categories reveal nothing about [the problem] but they do tell us something about the nature of those who categorize them”
25. Ackoff’s ”Mess” ”Mess”: A system of problems
26. Technique: ”Assume they are rational”
27. Skilled facilitation brings out perspectives ”Gradually revealing reality”
28. Practice 3: How to deal with the mess?
29. The performance of a system is 
 not the sum of its parts, it is 
 the product of their interactions. HEURISTIC
30. Better for us vs better for me EXAMPLE
31. Improving the parts individually often 
 does not lead to an improvement of the whole HEURISTIC
32. We need to focus on the interactions (not just the actions) of the parts of the system. HEURISTIC
33. Get some help from your partner 
 (~3 mins each) ‣ Which interactions might hold the key to improving your system’s performance? ‣ How could you help improve them?
34. Wrapping up …
35. ”It’s not so much about systems, 
 but how to use yourself in the system” – Edie Seashore (google: ”edie seashore use of self”)
36. Your take-away A larger systemic change that needs to be made to improve your ”mess” A small next step you could take tomorrow
37. My take-aways ‣ If you want to understand: zoom out ‣ Get more curious ‣ Minimize blaming ‣ Try to improve the larger system ‣ … and remember use yourself in the system
38. Learn More ‣ Re-Creating the Corporation. Russell L. Ackoff. ‣ Quality Software Management, Volume 1. Systems Thinking. ‣ The Systems Bible. John Gall. ‣ Learning for Action. Peter Checkland and John Poulter. ‣ A General Introduction to Systems Thinking. Gerald M. Weinberg. ‣ Ackoff’s Best. Russell L. Ackoff ‣ Video: Beyond Method @ Öredev 2011 - https://vimeo.com/37603163
39. Let’s stay in touch! @tofo www.tobiasfors.se