Optimized Systems Thinking Guidelines (Where do systems usually fail?)

Over years of professional growth and working in different countries with different people with different mindsets, cultures and backgrounds, I have come to realize that regardless of the industry, location and people, there are similar patterns that govern the success or failure of any organization in achieving its goals.

I have come to develop an eye that sees everything around us as systems constructed from Lego blocks that, if properly identified and positioned with care, can lead to magnificent constructs. Whether in business, design, communities and governments.

In the following points, I summarize what I now see as key guiding principles that lead to, or if missed due to lack of understanding or of discipline, to the success of failure of such magnificent constructs or what we can call healthy systems that have good chances of sustaining and flourishing.

1- Ethical Value Creation is More Sustainable

Systems that are guided by ethics, professionalism, creation of value for people and for the world flourish more than systems that ignore them. The world we live in is a world of exchange and cooperation not of suction of resources and greed.

2- It's all about Integration (I call this "The Palette Thinking" or "The Palette Vision)

Avoid thinking and working in Silos (silos of system components, silos of a particular group of stakeholders, silos of particular department objectives)

Silos, even if they achieve positive results in one areas or for one group of beneficiaries always tend to cause damage to the system as a whole.

Avoid orphaned process or orphaned data (each process or data should belong or relate to the system or it will be lost therefore loosing an opportunity for growth)

Avoid isolation from environment (No system can sustain without understanding its boundaries, impact and limitations and interacting with them)

Embrace differences, challenges and change as part of the growth of your visibility spectrum (No environment is fixed, no knowledge is definite, be flexible to learn and unlearn in order to grow)

3- Methodological Approaches See Better (discipline of Linear Thinking)

When approaching understanding of complex systems, avoid randomness in your approach. All systems tend to have entropy. Unless contained, clustered and analyzed, they are very difficult to understand and to manage. Linear approaches help you capture facts in a more efficient manner. Most systems comprise of data and of workflows. I found theses grouping approaches to be of great help.

Data Grouping Approach (These database principles apply to even the simplest of meetings and presentations and help make things clear)

-??????????? Identify clearly your data entities from your data attributes.

-??????????? Group by entity not by attribute

-??????????? Index

-??????????? Draw relations

Workflow Grouping Approach

-??????????? Identify activities and dependencies

-??????????? Identify feedback loops reinforcing and balancing

-??????????? Create loop controls

-??????????? Links relevant data and documents to your loop

4- Leaner Systems Suffer Less

Decrease unnecessary steps in everything, whether in procedures, fabrication steps, interactions, design variables, variation ranges, etc...

Decrease unnecessary complexities.

5- Two ways Communications

Create channels for input and feedback to monitor and improve your system

Create channels for relevant output and feedback from your system to the world

6- Work in order to Make it Work

Systems are like empires, they either grow or decay. If a system is stagnant, decay will be inevitable. Most systems are not self-propelling and require to be guided to avoid loss of direction.

7- Allow Space for Expression of Individuality

Each person is unique. Uniqueness in thought, perspective and expression. Create space for expression of ideas and personalities and create methods of integrating that uniqueness as feedbacks for system growth.

There is no substitute to experience, therefore we try to learn from those before us and try to build on that knowledge in order to pass it to those who follow. May we all succeed in a creation of better systems and better worlds