The Elephant and the Five Blind Men
They were five blind. Each one was asked to make a description of an elephant, from which they were taken, respectively, from one of its parts.
The first of them, who was clinging to the trunk, said that the elephant was "long and thick, flexible, wrinkled, and to some extent, I think… hmmm, it is capable of manipulating the world around it."
The second quickly exclaimed: «- I don't agree! - », as he ran his ears,«… it is smooth, it is not wrinkled, very thin, not at all thick, and it also flaps in the wind «.
«- How do you say that? ! - »The third asked, touching a leg,» the elephant is a thick and round animal. Heavy and wrinkled. There is no wind that can move it.
«- Don't be silly -«, said the blind room leaning on the long side, »it is big as a house and wide as a wall«.
«- They are all absolutely wrong! - ", shouted the fifth blind man, clinging to the tail," the elephant is flexible and tapered. It is not very large and although it moves easily, it does not appear to have a definite purpose.
The five blind men argued all day, without agreeing, and each one went home thinking how stupid the others are.
The problem
In the seminars and conferences where I tell this story, it is common for participants to quickly associate the argument with what is happening in their companies.
In our environment, the most common is that when problems involving people are perceived, they are addressed and handled separately, as isolated events. In a sense, the problems are seen as "local," as in the story, each holding on to her part. And many times the conclusions are the same as those of the story. The others are stupid (inept, irresponsible, ill-prepared, uninformed, slow, weird, different) and they don't realize »how things really are«.
When people are involved, problems are perceived, addressed, and handled separately, as isolated events.
Systemic Organizational Psychology
This way of looking at organizations that is fed by theory and practice based on systems thinking, offers us a conceptual framework, a body of knowledge and tools, developed in the last fifty years, so that behavior patterns can be cut more easily; to be able to intervene, disturb and modify them.
With Systemic Organizational Psychology we carry out the diagnosis or evaluation, the design of the intervention for change, the redefinition of relationships, the implementation of change strategies.
From this perspective, - the professionals who are summoned as external consultants - and the company managers themselves, we can be more effective in helping organizations find more effective and lasting solutions to their problems, instead of doing it « case by case".
The systemic vision offers the opportunity to see problems from a comprehensive and global perspective
The company as a system.
The companies are organized into areas or sectors: management, production, sales, customer service, human resources, administration, etc. Each area has its own distinctive purpose, population, function and culture, and each depends to a greater or lesser extent on the others to achieve good overall company performance.
Each area, in turn, is related to the entire company, thus each one contributes to adopt what defines or characterizes the company.
The word system derives from the Greek verb sunistanai, which originally meant "to cause a union." As this meaning suggests, the structure of a system includes the unifying perception of the observer.
Defining the company as a system is a decision of the one who defines. Hall and Fagen say that »system is a set of elements with their properties and their relationships, which hold them together«. Once the system is defined, any set made up of some of the components and their mutual properties and relationships, we can define it as a subsystem.
In each organization that we define as a system, we can delimit sectors that we call subsystems: human subsystem (who they are), work subsystem (how it is done), administration subsystem (how resources are allocated), and the information subsystem (how they are handle the data).
These subsystems and their actions are linked by invisible patterns of interrelated events, which often take time (sometimes years) to show their reciprocal effects. This makes it often difficult to identify which aspect is cause and which effect. As we ourselves are part of these bonds, it becomes more difficult to see the whole as a pattern of behaviors.
On the contrary, we tend to see fragments of behavior, such as snapshots, as isolated parts of the system, and many times we do not understand how problems remain, which even cause serious complications, and generate discomfort. Still we can't find a way to make a change.
Actions are linked by invisible patterns of interrelated events, which often take time (sometimes years) to show their reciprocal effects.
Thus, the systemic perspective places the emphasis on wholes and the interaction between the parts and not on each one separately. This requires the business to be responsive and responsive to external changes.
Currently, companies operate in a scenario of almost permanent change in needs, in relation to products and services, customer expectations, which arise from changes in political, social, economic and technological trends. That is why it is so important that companies can collect external information, rework it into feedback, and remain flexible in order to remain competitive, viable, and survive.
What can Organizational Psychology do for your company?
The people who live in the mountains of the province of Córdoba, unlike the others, know very well the behavior pattern of their mountain streams. One day the clouds thicken, the sky darkens, the leaves shake, and it rains. Then after the storm the water will drain into the high streams of the mountains miles away and the next day the sky will be clear. Within hours of the end of the rain, the water from the mountains descends with increasing force and speed, carrying and covering everything in its path. Hours later the water disappears and the peaceful little beaches return. At that moment and not before the local boys go down to the beaches.
All these elements are connected within the same pattern. Everyone influences the rest, and the influence is usually not visible. The "Cordovan rains" system is only understood by seeing it in its entirety, not in each individual element.
This approach changes our beliefs and perceptions in many areas. Leadership is examined in its relational aspects, and for example, ethical and moral issues have become key elements of relationships with staff, suppliers and customers. In motivation, there is a passage from external rewards to motivators that are born from work itself.
Events distant in time and space connect in a pattern
This implies a change of habits; From thinking about tasks, you start thinking about processes. People in companies are becoming experts in building relationships. It will take greater skills to listen and communicate, to act in groups, because these are useful talents to establish relationships. The era of the isolated individual is being replaced by that of the team worker.
How is this approach projected in the life of companies?
Encouraging participation. The participatory nature of reality has focused attention on relationships. Managers of companies and institutions can now be more aware that they have people working for them; that the work is done by human beings like themselves, each with strong desires for recognition and participation. The greater the feeling of belonging to the organization, the higher the performance.
Leadership also takes a relational bias, it is always context dependent, and context is established by the relationships we value. We cannot hope to influence any situation without respecting the complex network of people who contribute to our organizations. The movement of the systems is kept in harmony through self-reference.
Rather than turning in circles in various directions, each part of the system should remain consistent with itself and with all parts of the system as it changes; it is a profound relationship between individual activity and the whole.
Also, from this approach, some questions arise whose answers deserve other spaces. Is this way of looking at a fashion that will pass? Is it based on democratic principles, then is it not transferable to other cultures? Is it a sophisticated way to manipulate workers? Or is it of a different order?
Systemic Organizational Psychology in practice
For problem-solving professionals, whether acting as internal or external consultants, it's good to start the job by asking basically six questions. The answers will give us a clear description of the relationships within the system, what were the attempts to solve it (interventions that, in general, reinforce the problematic situation) and they will give us the elements to establish a change strategy and its implementation..
what is the problem ?
What have you done so far to solve it?
What is my role, the protagonist, in supporting the problem?
What would the problem look like from each other's point of view?
What do you expect from the intervention of a consultant?
What are they willing to do to solve the problem?
Think globally, act locally
Problem solving methodology from the perspective of systemic organizational psychology
1. People consult annoyed by some situation. That's what we take, before rushing into the search for deeper roots. In general in companies and institutions, problems are an expression of dissatisfaction or disagreement with an interaction, a procedure, a product or a service. Someone is not happy with someone else.
2. We consider problems as difficult situations to deal with between people, that is, a relational problem.
3. We take these problems as a result of daily difficulties, including situations of change, which were not handled in a timely and adequate manner.
4. There are natural evolutionary changes in the life of companies, growth or reduction, staff displacements (promotions, layoffs, transfers, retirements), partnerships with other companies, fluctuations in the volume of clients. Many companies manage more or less well to handle these types of changes. However, as these situations also require changes in interpersonal relationships, they can easily be mishandled.
5. There are two ways that problems develop. People treat a common difficulty as "a problem," or people treat a common difficulty as if it were not a problem.
6. We start from the assumption that once a difficulty is defined as a problem, its maintenance results from the creation of a circuit of behaviors that try to solve said difficulty. It is about giving a solution to the original difficulty that only intensifies it.
7. For a problem to be solved, a modification in the behavior patterns that support it is necessary, which although they are at hand, most of the time cannot be done on their own initiative.
8. We promote change that works, even if our solution is somewhat illogical at first.
9. »Think globally, act locally«, (touch the elephant's leg, or the ear, or the tail and think about the elephant). Changes in small places create changes in large systems, because they coexist in totality. It is legitimate to work with the system wherever it manifests itself, because invisible connections will create effects at a distance, in places we have never thought of.
10. We hold that change is more easily effected if the method for carrying it out is reasonably shorter and with clearly established guidelines. Our concept is that of "not beating around the bush." When you experience a change, even a small one, the experience leads to new changes.
11. Our approach is pragmatic. Our observations and remarks are based on direct observation and participation in WHAT is happening, HOW it persists, and HOW that situation is changed.
Change is more easily effected if the method for carrying it out is reasonably shorter and with clearly established guidelines.
