Empire State Building-Are you a Systems Thinker?

Feedback loops and the ability (necessity, I would argue) to be agile and adjust in real time (i.e. - to be a systems thinker) are critical for success today. This is why continuous improvement and agile methodologies are taking over, but do they address all the issues? While necessary, I think they solve only part of a problem. Oftentimes, some of these methodologies improve the performance and nimbleness within the verticals but not across the horizontal.

I think we can all learn to be better systems thinkers, inside and outside the workplace, from a project completed during the first half of the last century: the construction of the Empire State Building (I have been a fan of the history of this building due to all the business parallels we use today and being a native New Yorker). This project pioneered integrated building techniques that cut costs, saved time, and introduced many new innovations of its time.

Even by today’s standards, this construction project was a marvel:

• 4.5 stories per week
• costs at $17 million under projected ($24 million vs. the original $41 million)
• the development of just in time delivery (a concept that had not existed before)
• selfless commitment to a more holistic and integrated approach based on a common goal

This building resulted from one of the first “team” approach projects of modern construction. Typically, the process was an assembly line approach: architect handing off to the general contractor to the sub-contractors and so on, but for this project, system-like thinking guided the project to completion after only 20 months. Skyscrapers of comparable size, built at the time, took twice as long (e.g. Chrysler Building). Systems thinking across the supply/development chain helped enable the rapid construction: building temporary cafes so that the workers wouldn’t have to go all the way down to eat, installing girders that had come from the factory just 20 hours prior, engineering an integrated water system (vs. roof water tanks common for the day) and many other “firsts”.

One of the truly game-changing innovations at that time was having everyone at the table from the get-go (design and build), with feedback loops to allow adjustments in real time. These factors greatly contributed to the project’s ultimate success. The Empire State builders were early adapters of systems thinking that is very relevant today: integration and collaboration. These builders identified the delays and challenges of work done in silos, isolated from other elements of the project; they integrated across the horizontals.

As we develop projects today, we must intentionally apply systems thinking not just to the vertical workflows but across our silos, creating skyways. Skyways are modern day shortcuts, bringing mobility and light to our pathways between buildings. If we can imagine horizontal thinking as skyways between the silos, we can envision just-in-time deliveries with organically occurring feedback and collaboration. Over time, integration will become natural and effortless. Moreover, agile and nimble solutions to problems that affect both vertical and horizontal efforts will happen in real time.

Are you able to grab the right people across the spectrum for a collective success? Could our projects ever arrive underbudget and ahead of schedule? Are you willing to take a back seat and sacrifice a portion of the project if it meant the whole project moved ahead, while your individual goals get delayed? Can you think of the downstream impacts or unintended consequences of not system thinking? More importantly have you thought of it this way?

 One needs only to gaze at the elegant Empire State Building for inspiration. Think about it!