Change

Thinking in systems

One of the most insightful books I read this year is Thinking in Systems. The author explains what a system is, how they work and behave, complex systems (composed of smaller parts) and a lot about how they work. Unlike many self-help books that can be condensed into a couple of pages, this book is concise and extensive.

Working in technology, we design systems (interacting services) often and hence the basic idea is very familiar. However systems are not limited to technology. Systems exist everywhere - people in a company, people in a state, biological systems at cellular levels, ecosystems, and more. A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized to achieve something.

Watch the video from Russell Ackoff on system's thinking?

In particular he said,

A system is never the sum of its parts; it’s the product of their interaction.

The Thinking in system's book covers multiple topics in the area but I'd like to focus on one basic topic about change.

Change

A system must consist of three kinds of things: elements, inter-connections, and a function or purpose.

Let's take a company as an example of a system.

• The various employees, executives, customers, partners form the human elements of a company. The internal org chart of the company is hierarchical and those with executive leadership roles have higher impact on the company.
• Connections would be the people to people relationships in the org, across employees and other customers and partners. Who works with whom and shares information and dependencies.
• Purpose includes the purpose, mission, vision statements and also how the company acts beyond its stated goals.

Change in systems can happen across all three but the impact is different.

• Change of the elements happens as employees (or other people) leave and join. For the most part this has little change in the system by itself. A few replacements should not change the company too much and generally adapt to the existing behavior.
• Change of interconnections is a high impact change in systems. If one function or role in the company changes its behavior, the rules change enough that the company may become unrecognizable.
• Change of function or purpose changes a system profoundly, even if every element and interconnection remains the same.

Dynamic companies need to change and I welcome change rather than rigidity. At the same time, understanding types of change definitely helped me contextualize how I felt about changes in my company.

Managing change requires understanding how the system will react to a change. A system might destabilize if the change causes unintended side-effects. However if managed well, systems can morph with time to achieve new outcomes or become effective at current ones.