Learning Systems Thinking

Chapter 11. Systems Leadership

Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.

Steve Jobs

The primary blocker to providing systems leadership is that we are rarely given roles designed to provide systems leadership. Knowledge work is a paradigm shift for most organizations. The roles we apply for fit a linear-thinking world—predictable, procedural, concerned with control. We are systems thinkers in a world that was not designed for us.

The good news is that we can provide systems leadership regardless of our role. Systems leadership is integrative leadership, developing ecologies of change. We can influence, through our thinking and behavior and the ecologies we inhabit, and contribute experiences that give others a taste of systems thinking’s benefits.

We are providing systems leadership whenever we do the following:

• Discern the difference between linear and nonlinear approaches, choosing the mindset that most fits the circumstances.

• Encourage healthy relationships among sociotechnical parts.

• Keep solutions connected to systemic goals and purposes.

• Shift perspectives proactively and see challenges from multiple perspectives.

• Express tolerance for ambiguity.

• Demonstrate and reinforce self-awareness.

• Whenever possible, champion learning teams and knowledge flow.

• Demonstrate and reinforce systemic reasoning.

• Design and ...