Six Clues You're Using (Or Perhaps Not) Your Systemic Intelligence

As long as we talk about economical growth or technological evolution, it's clear for everyone what this is about. When, however, we talk about growth at the emotional-relational and, even more so, systemic level, things change a lot. Yet, there can be no real progress or any sustainable evolution if all these aspects don't operate in unison.

Before getting into the clues which the title refers to, it's appropriate to explain why we should even talk about Systemc Intelligence in the first place, considering that most people have no idea what it is.

We see ourselves as operating as a single organism utilizing a whole bunch of resources to achieve a given result. Actually, we (just as anything else) consist of different "dimensions" that work in unison, providing us with the sensation that there's only "one" of us operating. While everything runs smoothly, that's okay, but what happens when problems arise at the very structural level?

Let's take a 14-15 year-old teenager with a mental disability: his body is that of a young man, but his mind runs as that of a 3-4 year-old. Or the opposite where, because of a genetic fault (e.g. dwarfism), a 30 year-old man has the intelligence of a person that age, but in the body of a 9-10 year-old boy. Or a 30-40 year-old individual who suffered a serious psychological trauma when he was 6 or 7 (e.g. child abuse), operating perfectly at a physical or mental level, but is emotionally blocked at the age he had when the trauma occurred. This misalignment between different dimensions can result in very serious consequences.

For any organization, it works pretty much the same way. There exists a technical, physical, material dimension that is involved in the operational and practical part of a specific business; and then you have an emotional dimension that is more specifically involved with the relational aspect of the organization, both within (business climate, motivation, etc.) and without (marketing, communication, etc.); and then you have a mental dimension, at the systemic level, that works with the dynamics that affect the events resulting from the interactions with the reality which the organization is operating in. To my knowledge, there seems to be no specific profession that deals with this latter dimension. In fact, the task should be totally undertaken by the business leader, but it's very unlikely to happen if the leader himself is unaware of it.

Just like a so called Emotional Intelligence started to be promoted in businesses as of roughly 20 years ago, thanks to dr. Daniel Goleman, in the last few years the need to implement a new type of intelligence that would enable organizations to deal more effectively with a brand new reality has grown ever stronger. It's not just the fact that only very few people are really aware of the existence of this systemic dimension that is slowing down the integration of a Systemic Intelligence, but that it also stirs up a lot of resistance, as it requires to break out of the usual way of thinking and to consider factors that challenge our ordinary way of running a business.

Provided that there's obviously more to be said about this, you may perhaps be unknowingly adopting behaviors and strategies that indicate you're already using this intelligence. Don't feel miserable if you find out you don't: don't forget that S.I. works opposite to the way your mind has always functioned. So here are some clues that you are somehow thinking systemically.

1. Counter-intuitiveness

We live in unprecedented times, and we need to face them with unprecedented mental strategies. There's a huge mistake we make about intuitiveness that we must correct. Most people relate to intuition as if it were something supernatural which we absolutely must listen to from the bottom of our guts in order to overcome an unexpected situation. The truth is that our intuitive responses are actually quite trivial and outright predictable, although it may not seem so to us, in the face of rather ordinary situations, albeit new. So, this is the point: times have changed drastically and we are expected to operate according to very different rules. We don't have a database, whether unconcious or not, that would instinctively suggest us what to do, so we must learn a few, but essential concepts that enable us to effectively navigate this new reality.

2. Indirect control

Control is a basic aspect of any structure, whether natural or artificial: the alternative is chaos. How is it, then, that in Nature everything has been going on for billions of years without anyone checking on it? It's the type of control that makes the difference. We work on a so-called mechanistic mentality, whereby we tend to see everything as a machine on which to intervene directly... i.e. on the effect. This way, not only do we fail dealing with the real problem, the cause, but it becomes the premise for further, future problems. Nature, on the other hand, is run by eternal and unchangeable dynamics and laws that keep all systems on track, so that control is inherent in Nature's modus operandi. Regardless what most people think, an organization is a natural system, and the task of a leader who adopts this model of reality is to work on the causes, thus creating the conditions that produce the desired effects. This is what you call indirect control.

3. Diverging thinking

When you go to your mechanic because you hear a strange noise coming from the engine compartment of your car, he sticks his head there to hear where the noise comes from, which part is involved, what could the damage be, and how to fix it. That's okay with a car, but not with a natural system. This way of thinking is called "converging" because it limits your mind's range of vision to single situations, looking not too far away into the past to identify their cause. This still remains a precious proficiency, of course, but in order to be more effective over the medium and long term you need to adopt a broader vision of reality, defined "diverging", something a leader is expected to develop. This would enable him to see the situation from a wider angle, to identify the real causes that could be found somewhere in the distant past, and from there, take a running leap towards a much farther future.

4. Focus on the Process

When you set a goal for yourself, the achievement of which is established by the result you expect to obtain, your focus obviously shifts on that result, and it becomes your master from that moment on: it will dictate your mental states depending on whether you're reaching it or not. Does that mean we shouldn't set goals? Not at all! Without goals we won't even budge, but the problem is that we don't really know what a goal is for, which is to compel us to grow as individuals and organizations. If you start focusing on the process, on the other hand, and you become aware of the changes which the pursuit of the goal is actually soliciting in people and organizations, isn't that a better idea? What's the point in eliciting anxiety and pressure on everybody when you don't see the result coming? What if you value every single moment of the process and you use it to reinforce self-esteem and determination in your team instead? That's what working on the cause means.

5. Removing all labels

We keep labelling events ad "positive" or "negative", that something is "right" or "wrong", that this is "good" and that is "bad". However, what's the criteria behind your judging something one way or another? According to its desirability, right? If it's desirable, then it's "positive, right and good"; conversely, it's "negative, wrong and bad". This moralistic approach to judging events and reality, sticking childish labels onto them, is as detrimental as it can get. It's what makes us say "we've always done things this way" (it's right); or, aprioristically, "this will never work!" (it's wrong); or even "this is not the way to behave!" (it's bad). On which basis do you make these statements? On prejudices and bias that have never been proven. Things are never right or wrong, but rather effective or ineffective, they either work or they don't: anything but this is useless or even potentially dangerous hooey.

6. Everything is necessary

Anything that exists has a precise purpose and a potential of benefit for the whole, although often yet unexpressed. Growth, evolution, is a law of this reality which we can't escape, and you know well that it's the most painful events that make us grow. And in any case, it's not the event itself that causes the suffering, but the resistance you oppose to it. To feel the blow of a painful event is not only normal, but even necessary, and you mustn't pretend it's nothing. If all that exists is necessary, then pain is too. Grief, however (which manifests in many ways, like anger, denial, closure, surrender, revenge, etc.), is only about us, it does not belong to systems, and whereas pain has its natural course, grief and sufferance remain for as long as you decide to keep them, and you can only exit that tunnel when you fully understand that pain is not only necessary, but because it's necessary, it is also useful. How you intend to make it useful depends solely on you.

Do you respond to events on a counter-intuitive manner? That is, can you do exactly the opposite to what comes instinctive to you?

Can you achieve something by going back to the real cause of events, or do you deal with them head down?

Can you pull a few steps back so you can see the overall picture, swarming with dynamics, interactions and contributing factors instead of focusing on just the single events?

Can you resist the temptation to test results, which is usually a total waste of time, while focusing on the effectiveness of the processes that produce the results instead?

Can you (this is a hard one!) abstain from sticking moralistic labels to events and situations, while focusing on the effectiveness of what breaks away from your frame of mind?

Can you see the perfection of this reality, where nothing is either good or bad, but it's all heading towards your final success, if you know how to deal with any event with a mental, emotional amd practical approach that is aligned with the reality that you operate in?

The anwers you give to these questions will enable you to verify how much of your Systemic Intelligence you're using to communicate with this new reality in a very simple, direct and safe way.