In organisational life system is often taken to mean a process by which things get done – various steps, specialists, teams/departments involved in creating a product or delivering a service.
When things go wrong we look for the break in the system. Conventional wisdom suggests looking for an individual responsible for the failure. Their competence may be called into question. Performance measures may be put in place. Though the intention is to help this approach can erode confidence, create caution, slow things down, or worse.
And we may not be looking in the right place, at the right things.
A much broader and more helpful perspective comes from elevation and taking a true systems perspective, seeing our organisation as a collection of interdependent and interconnected relationships between all entities – people, teams, wider stakeholders, processes, policies, etc.
From this perspective a much greater appreciation of system emerges. We can see how simple decisions may have a disproportionate, unhelpful and unintended impact on our people – those under our direct leadership and across the wider system.
We may see how processes and controls inhibit flow in the system, confuse people, create duplication. There may be burdensome reporting requirements and reporting on the wrong things at the wrong time.
What if we were to start again, treating our organisation as a blank sheet and drawing out all the entities in its system – within the organisational boundary and beyond? Perhaps we would design an organisation that enabled people to flourish, where relationships between people and teams are prioritised and processes and policies support and encourage rather than constrain. Where people find their voice to challenge where things are getting in the way and new approaches are needed.
And we may choose, hopefully, to extend our thinking into the wider world system of which we are a part – considering how we can orient our organisation to make a greater contribution to building a better world for all. A lofty ambition maybe yet one we must surely rise to.