Framework for Systems Thinking / Learning Organizations
Systems Thinking looks at the world around us from a new angle. It focuses on how systems change over time, identifies the forces of change and explains how they arise. Systems Thinking seeks simple, fundamental explanations.
It discovers and reveals the underlying, often ancient rules that drive our behavior. It leads us to find and implement new rules and structures for a permanent change of behavior. Systems Thinking guides us into understanding that it is ourselves, not something “out there” causing our problems. That realization will help us to make the shift from reactive to proactive behavior.
Systems Thinking forces us to break free from the old mental models. By assuming that the world is terribly complex we give ourselves an excuse for not understanding its dynamics. Yet the world is simple on the structural level even though it produces apparently complex behavior.
Learning Dilemma in Management
We learn the best from experience (bike riding, fire burns), but only when the cause and effect are close in time and space
The most valuable learning in business is embedded in important, long term decisions.
Learning from these decisions is very difficult due to the distance in time and space (a decision in London in 2001 has an effect in Jakarta in 2007)
| Picture Learning Dilemma in Management |
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| “Learning
organizations create dynamic structures where ordinary people working together produce extraordinary results.” STE Oy |
STE’s Learning Organization is:
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| Picture Paper Market Structure Causal Loop Diagram of Order-Delivery in Paper Market |
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? Why are our vision and strategy so distant from everyday operations?
? Is the enormous budgeting and planning process waste of time?
? Why does it feel much more comfortable to react to events rather than being proactive?
| NOT THIS | BUT THIS |
| Driven by enthusiasm | Disciplined and persistent |
| Heroism and charismatic leadership | Humble |
| Special projects | Profit engine, Economic engine |
| Idealistic | Fact-based |
| Optimal | Respecting the basic structures |
| Wishful thinking | Structural simplicity |
| Complex world view | Everyone is probably right |
| Chaotic | Removing barriers |
| “I am right, you are wrong”? | ”Learning organizations create structures, where ordinary people working together produce extraordinary results." |
| Success factors | |
| “We must” | |
| “If we only hired super-people…” |
Copyright © STE Oy 2007