Systems Thinking - The Importance of Necessary Distance

This is the third in a shot series of articles on Systems Thinking. See the first and second here. These articles are aimed at provoking much needed attention to this important area and to draw attention to Professor Mike Jackson's upcoming Critical Systems Thinking course later this month delivered by the Enlightened Enterprise Academy.

The No1 challenge for 21st century leaders - leading in complexity

An organisation is a system of many parts: the silos, departments, teams and workers as well as the systems, processes, data and technology that underpins the activity, production and coordination across the enterprise. This is further extended when considering the customers, suppliers, regulators, society, shareholders and other stakeholders which the organisation depends upon. This complexity manifests itself in the form of many different systems within systems operating in a way that hopefully delivers value to all stakeholders in line with leaders goals and the organisation's purpose.

How is value created, delivered, sustained and grown in an organisation? This will depend on a myriad of actions, systems and subsystems that are operating across the enterprise. Determining the points of greatest leverage and system shaping to improve value creation is no easy task. To do this well requires attention and insight that can vertically zoom in/out from the micro detail to see the overall meta picture. It also requires leaders to be able to simultaneously pan horizontally to ensure the necessary systemic coordination and collaboration is occurring between different functions and stakeholders.

Beyond the numbers - identifying core system drivers through the perspective of "Necessary Distance"

The art of leadership therefore calls upon leaders to look beyond the metrics to see the organisation as a living, breathing and evolving ecosystem. This means having clarity on the organisation's purpose and being able to identify what really matters below the numbers. This requires having the wisdom and understanding as to how these systems of systems can best be nurtured and supported in the context of their relationships with other parts of the overall organisational value system (or value scheme).

This brings us to the idea of Necessary Distance. In order to view a painting like the one above it would be possible to get so close to the canvas that you could see the shape of a leaf and the brushwork that created it. Each leaf is an important part of the picture, but it reveals nothing of what the picture is about. If viewed from far away the picture would appear as a distant blob of colour that again would reveal nothing of what the painting contains or what the artist was intending to portray. It is only when we place ourselves at the right necessary distance that the full picture and its meaning comes into view. At this point we can see how the parts make up the whole and the totality of the meaning that the painting represents.

How does this apply to leadership?

Our organisations, institutions and society are becoming more complex. This will require leaders at all levels who are able to flexibly zoom in and zoom out to recognise and adopt the Necessary Distance needed to look beyond the detailed local activities, functions and relationships they are responsible for and see how they contribute to and shape the greater picture of value creation their organisation represents.

Systems Thinking provides a series of tools, skills and knowledge that can aid leaders and teams to apply the best of systems thinking to the particular challenges and opportunities faced by their organisations. Shockingly there is little or no comprehensive systems thinking courses being taught at University or available through executive coaching channels.

This is a huge gap that needs to be filled. It is this need that the Enlightened Enterprise is seeking to fill through its collaboration with Professor Mike Jackson. Take advantage of learning practical insights directly from one of the world's leading systems thinking experts.?DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE?and check for details of?AVAILABLE PROGRAMS AND START DATES.

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