Chapter 1. "Give me a lever and I'll move the world"
In this chapter we can understand what are the tools to see the world as a single system, discard the idea that the world is in a defragmented form or that it is composed of separate and disconnected forces, analyzing the problems part by part separately; This has to be eliminated from our minds because the world is a whole, since all of its parts have a connection, when the thought of a defragmented world is discarded, the emergence of intelligent organizations occurs, in these organizations people " learn to learn ”through sight, the senses or guided by the examples lived in the course of their lives. The existence of intelligent organizations is possible because deep down, each and every one of us is “learners”,Likewise, intelligent organizations are possible because learning is part of our nature and we love that action of learning, that is why the people who work in an organization are willing to learn or re-learn new behaviors, skills and attitudes, so that this If possible, it is vitally important to assert the capacity of the people at each level of the organization.
Something basic that should always be taken into account is the difference that exists between intelligent organizations and traditional organizations is the domain of certain basic disciplines, which is why the "disciplines of intelligent organization" are of vital importance.
Disciplines of smart organization
In the engineering area, we talk about innovation when there is an idea and it ceases to be an invention and takes the next step, in this process certain components derived from various research areas converge, which are arranged as a set to achieve the success. We can transcend this to the next reflection, when something is invented and the next step is achieved, innovation is achieved, this achievement is in the combination of different areas or disciplines.
Currently, 5 disciplines are used that are concentrated to achieve innovation in Intelligent organizations. These disciplines were developed independently, but each of them are decisive for the success of the others as any set should be; The existence of each one is vital for all disciplines as a whole, and in Smart organizations the result they achieve depends on the application that is given to each of the disciplines.
Systematic thinking
In systematic thinking the system is only understood by analyzing it as a whole, not as individual elements. Systematic thinking is precisely being convinced that every element is linked to the same system. Examples of systems are all companies regardless of their size, as well as organizations; These systems are a set of knowledge and tools united to achieve a goal. Applying this to the activities of a company, we can say that the problems that arise in each area of the company are not isolated, rather they must be viewed as a complete system;The problems do not have to be analyzed separately, rather, they have to be solved as a set as they all correspond to an organization (it should be seen as a global system) and it is the organization's task to solve all the problems as a whole since each of the parts (areas of the organization) are linked to each other and in turn with the company as a complex global system, and the decisions made will affect the organization as a system and not individually, it will even affect its environment.
Personal domain
When we speak of domain, it can be understood as a domination of people or even things, however, this term goes further, understanding it as a skill.
On the other hand, when we talk about personal mastery, we refer to a discipline that allows clarifying and deepening the personal vision of each individual, thus concentrating their energies, developing their patience and seeing reality objectively. For all this, it is said that a cornerstone of intelligent organizations is personal mastery.
Unfortunately there are very few organizations that stimulate the growth of their collaborators, this results in a waste of resources, since instead of companies taking advantage of people who come to work with excellent attitudes: intelligent, bright, enthusiastic, cultured, eager to bring changes to the company; The same companies cause those collaborators, who were radiant in the beginning, to lose their sense of commitment and no longer feel any incentive to continue with the initial attitude; companies waste resources.
We must understand that the discipline of personal mastery begins by clarifying the things that really matter, to concentrate our lives in the service of our greatest aspirations. At this point, it should be noted that the connection that must exist between personal learning and organizational learning is first important, since the commitments of both parties must be reciprocal, that is, the soul of every company must be made up of people capable of learning..
In conclusion, we must focus on what is really important to us as people and get rid of the little things that hinder us to achieve the success of our personal aspirations.
Mental models
Mental models are assumptions, generalizations or images that are located in our unconscious and have an influence on our way of acting, thinking and understanding the world. Smart organizations make use of internal mental models to drive the adoption of new, original and innovative ideas.
The discipline of working with mental models begins by learning to reconstruct the image we have of the world and bring it to the surface and thus subject it to rigorous analysis and investigation. This discipline also includes the aptitude to promote conversations in an open way where there is a balance between search and persuasion, where people reveal what they think so that these thoughts influence other people.
It can be said that mental models:
- They are simplifications of the real world They are located below the surface of conscious thought They are generally accepted unconsciously They have great influence on the actions that people take
Intelligent organizations must motivate their collaborators to improve their mental models used; these types of organizations discover effective ways to change the mental models they use for changing patterns.
Building a shared vision
An organization cannot achieve success or some greatness if it has not set goals, values, and mission, these elements must be shared within the organization.
It is of vital importance and success that some organizations manage to unite their collaborators around an identity and a common aspiration. When there is a true vision, people learn and excel. A shared vision comes from a common interest. In smart organizations, people create shared visions in order to feel united or connected by carrying out important and common work.
The important thing in this discipline is to translate the individual vision into a shared vision
To create a shared vision you need:
- Encourage personal vision: shared visions are born from personal visions. Smart organizations must stimulate individual vision to strengthen the shared vision of the organization Allow time for common vision to emerge: true common visions evolve as people participate and engage Vision over existing ideas Stating opinions positively, not negatively: negative opinions have harmful consequences that normally all organizations always try to avoid, however positive opinions express good aspirations and not fears.
Intelligent organizations cement feasible and powerful common visions, in the same way, intelligent organizations concentrate their efforts in consent with all the common visions of each collaborator.
Team learning
Teams can learn as they develop extraordinary skills to carry out coordinated actions. When teams learn, they generate extraordinary results and their members grow rapidly.
The discipline of team learning begins with dialogue to integrate authentic joint thinking. Team learning is of the utmost importance since the fundamental unit of learning in modern organizations is the team and not the individual. If teams don't learn, the organization can't learn.
To create a team learning it is necessary:
- Implement opportunities to initiate dialogue and debate, smart organizations use dialogue and debate to put the team's learning experience in the same context Use conflict in a constructive way, since team members have different ideas on how to achieve the vision; When it comes to analyzing and discussing these different views, team learning improves significantly.
Team learning is a comprehensive topic and is the core discipline of reference for smart organization.
The fifth discipline: systems thinking
It is important that the 5 disciplines are developed as a whole or as a complete system.
The fifth discipline is systems thinking; it is the discipline that integrates the other disciplines, merging them as a whole but in a coherent way both in theory and in practice. The 5 disciplines cannot be separate resources. Systems thinking tells us that the whole can exceed the sum of the parts.
Systems thinking requires the other disciplines: shared vision, mental models, team learning, and personal mastery to fulfill its potential:
1. Building a shared vision calls for long-term commitment.
- Mental models highlight the openness needed to shed the limitations of how we see the world. Team learning develops the skills of groups of people to seek a larger picture that goes beyond individual perspectives. Personal mastery encourages self-awareness. personal motivation to know how our actions affect our environment and the world.
The objective is to apply systematic thinking in the design of a shared vision and have a new perception of the world and ourselves and feel that we are part of this world, instead of considering ourselves separate from the world, we have to consider ourselves part and connected with it. world.
An intelligent organization creates its own reality and the way to modify it. Here is the application of the thought of the philosopher Archimedes: "Give me a lever and I will move the world."
The 5 disciplines differ from the traditional ones by obtaining the achievement of personal competences, which usually modify the way of thinking, aspirations and the way people interact.
Chapter 2. Does your organization have learning disabilities?
A large part of companies or organizations fail because they do not pay attention to the signs that show them that they are in trouble, although managers are aware that they exist; these types of companies abound throughout the world.
Similarly, most organizations "learn badly." The way companies are designed and managed, the way they assign tasks to their employees, and the way they are influenced to think and interact create fundamental learning problems. Such problems are committed over and over again despite the efforts of brilliant and dedicated contributors, unfortunately the more effort is made to solve the problems, the worse the results.
This is why it is essential that organizations detect learning problems as they are tragic for organizations, where they unfortunately go unnoticed. What you have to do first to remedy these problems is to start by identifying the seven barriers to learning:
- I am my position. On many occasions, organizations teach their collaborators to be loyal to their tasks, to the point of confusing them with their identity; confuse their position with their identity, this mentality leads a collaborator to be inefficient and unproductive, the collaborator also confuses their position as something that identifies them, does not conceive their life without their work and unfortunately this way of thinking falls into the situation of Not being productive in all respects The external enemy. The "external enemy" syndrome is a by-product of "I am my position." Normally people always look for a culprit to blame all the things that happen to them, without stopping to think that the enemy is themselves and blind to see and accept the real world, the illusion of taking charge.When making a decision, it is essential to have the necessary information about any impulse or intuition that we have, if decisions are not made with patience, the results will be snatched and with a high degree of uncertainty. Fixing on the facts. People usually have our fixation on the facts, if we concentrate on the facts, at most we can predict an event before it happens, in order to have an optimal reaction. We must see beyond the events that are occurring at that moment, therefore, we must be able to detect new opportunities.The parable of the boiled frog. This parable stems from the moment we struggle to adapt to the threats that arise when we try to survive in the face of business failures.Most of the time we are used to changes so prolonged that we do not detect what may happen, when we realize that things have already got out of control and unfortunately when this happens it is too late to claim. We must be prepared to accept sudden changes and not for those slow and gradual changes. The illusion that "you learn by experience." Each of the experiences we acquire in life are a potential means of learning; Normally all the basic actions such as eating, crawling, walking and communicating we learn them through trial and error, what we do is perform the actions and analyze the consequences of these then we carry out new and different actions, in this way we acquire our experiences.But there are cases when we do not see the consequences of our actions. Each person has a "learning horizon" (vision of time and space), based on this we assess our effectiveness. There is a problem: it is impossible to learn from our experiences, such a problem occurs when we are not aware that our actions have consequences that transcend the learning horizon; This is also applied within organizations, the learning dilemma: “you learn better from experience”, however we almost never perceive the consequences of many of our decisions and sometimes of the most important ones, therefore, the most important decisions. important and critical of organizations affect the whole system. The myth of the management team.Within an administrative group we find energetic and experienced managers, these represent the diverse functions and skills of the organization. This administrative group works together and works on the understanding and solution of complex multifunctional problems which are important to the organization. Those business teams worry about defending their territory and sometimes pretend to support the team, likewise, they hide disagreements, all this in order to avoid situations that can leave them in bad shape. An administrative team can work with routine problems, but when they have to deal with more complex problems the team does not work. This is when the situation of qualified incompetence occurs, that is, teams with members who are very apt to close themselves to learning.
All these learning disabilities have occurred in the past. The five learning disciplines can solve the aforementioned problems, however these must be studied in depth, because in many cases these problems go unnoticed or are lost among a lot of situations that abound every day within an organization.
Chapter 3. Prisoners of the system, or prisoners of our own thought?
To observe learning problems, we can start with a laboratory experiment: about the functioning of organizations where we can see the effects of the consequences of our decisions. People are often invited to participate in the "beer game" developed at the MIT school of management in the 1960s. This is a "laboratory replica" of a real environment. So we can isolate problems and their causes in real organizations. This allows us to realize that problems originate in elementary modes of thought and not in the structure or policies of the organization.
As in many games, its development can be told in the form of a story. There are three main characters: a retailer, a wholesaler, and the Marketing Director of a brewery. The story is told from the point of view of each of the players omitting the dealer.
The retailer
Suppose you are a retailer. The manager of a store that is open 24 hours a day. Or you own an old warehouse. Or a beverage store on the highway.
No matter what the place looks like, or some things it sells, beer is the basis of the business. In addition to the sales and income of the money, it brings customers who buy other products. There are several brands of beers, and there is a stock of them in the back room.
Once a week a trucker dispenses the beer, using only a form with the number of cases needed. The beer takes four weeks to fill.
Despite being a frequent customer, contact with the wholesaler only occurs through the trucker who delivers the beer. And coincidentally, one of the best-selling brands is lovers' beer. He only knows that it is made by a small brewery located a few miles from the store. It is not a popular brand and does not advertise, however it sells well to young twenty-somethings.
To always have the beer of lovers in stock. She keeps twelve cases in the warehouse, and just by ordering four a week she ensures that she always has beer on the shelves. Suddenly and fortuitously, thanks to a music video on a cable television channel, it causes sales to skyrocket and the order that was usually placed is insufficient and this forces him to order more and more cases of beer to meet the demand. However, the wholesaler is unable to supply the beer. And this could affect your reputation and your sales.
Wholesaler
Being an administrator of a beer wholesale company. Being every day at a desk in a warehouse of beers of many brands: Miller, Budweiser, etc., some imported, and local beers such as lovers' beer. You are in a region with a large city, some satellite cities, and suburbs and rural areas. And it is the only wholesaler with a good reputation. And for lovers' beer it is the only distributor in the area.
To order from the factory, use the same method retailers use to order from you. Through a form with numbers. The orders are filled four weeks later and instead of boxes he asks for bulk. Each thick fills the truck. When the retailer orders four boxes each week, you order four gross each week. That allows you to have 12 thick in inventory at all times.
Suddenly he starts to get frustrated as lovers' beer was a regular and reliable brand. But weeks ago the orders were going up fast. Retailer orders are increasing and they ask for triple or quadruple more than usual.
He had always fulfilled the additional orders with the warehouse merchandise. And he had anticipated these eventualities by foreseeing the trend of increasing sales of lovers' beer, thanks to the promotional video, and this made him increase his normal order. Since the popularity of beer is quadrupled.
Suddenly he dispatches everything he could and forces him to wait. And when you call the factory to ask if deliveries can be rushed, they inform you that production was sped up just two weeks earlier. While you get orders for twenty coarse of lovers' beer a week and you don't have them yet. All this forces the factory to put an answering machine to inform about the orders. With all this you only get six thick. Everything seems to indicate that the factory is behind schedule, which forces him to call the big stores and ensures that the beer will soon be supplied.
A week later, the extra beer doesn't arrive. The factory was unable to speed up production. And only partially fill orders. However, when they finally begin to fill the orders, it turns out that the retailers do not ask for the beer that they requested in large quantities to be supplied. In such a way that the tank begins to fill with so much beer that each new order it makes is zero beers ordered from the factory. However, the orders already made mean that the factory does not stop supplying them. And all this causes your beer inventory to become saturated.
The brewery
Imagine you are hired to work in a factory, where lovers' beer is a primary product. The factory is small but known for its quality. In his second month of work, the orders rise dramatically. And by the third month of working at the factory, he receives orders for forty coarse beer a week instead of the initial four. However, aside from orders, there are back-end orders that you manage to fill and be a hero to the factory. Later, and due to the video that caused the demand for lovers' beer to rise, the factory was unable to fulfill the orders, but despite this the demand was so great that it only thinks about its bonus that year. And get a percentage of profit on at least the orders you can fill. Since in the end the objective was to be able to fulfill these requests,however when this happens, the orders now disappear and the distributors begin to cancel the already placed ones.
And a week later you have a hundred thick beer in your inventory. Which forces you to make a call to stop production making the clarification that will only be temporary. But after four weeks of no orders, he realizes there will be no orders and he just thinks the dealers just cheated on him and now he's full of lovers' beer. But what happened to the demand for the beer that was increased by the video, which made everyone go crazy to have it for sale. And all of a sudden buyers went from buying hundreds of boxes in one month and none the next.
However, all this means that you can establish contact with the wholesaler and ask what happened. And both are of the opinion that the demand rose rapidly and then the demand disappeared. Due to the inconsistency of customers. This situation also allows him to be able to dialogue with the retailer, who explains his situation, where he too has kept his inventories full of lovers' beer, and proposes a strategy that allows him to recover some of the money he has invested in the purchase of beer.
And to all this, he asks who was the culprit of all this? Can this situation be prevented from happening again? In the end he just thinks how to resign and explain that he was a victim of the circumstances.
Lessons from the beer game
In the business world when everything is running smoothly, people are heroes, however if something goes wrong we think someone was wrong.
In the beer game there were no villains, no one was to blame for what happened, everyone wanted to do the right thing, however there was a crisis in the structure of the system.
Throughout the world and in different languages, the beer game has been played and the results are similar. Structures similar to the "beer game" create crises similar to those in this game. For example, in 1985, there was a crisis with computer memory chips, they were cheap and easy to get, so sales fell. But at the end of 1986, there was a shortage of them and this allowed an increase in the price of these.
Something similar happened in the automotive industry, plants made more cars than could be sold. And the dealers filled their inventories.
Structure influences behavior
When people are in the same system, although they have differences between them, even with these they produce similar results.
The systems perspective tells us to look beyond individual errors or bad stars to learn about the important problems. Look beyond people and events. The structure that shapes the actions of individuals and that creates the conditions that make certain events possible should be reviewed.
Redefining the Margin of Influence: How to Improve Our Performance in the Beer Game
In order to find an improvement in the beer game, we must think about the results that would be obtained if the participants did not make any movement to manage their inventories or place their orders. To do this, a strategy called the "no strategy" should be followed, and thus each player would make requests identical to those she receives. This is the simplest thing they would do. And when all three players follow this strategy, they find some stability. But the retailer and wholesaler fail to satisfy the backlogs. And backlogs grow because of order delays. And the stacks persist because players don't try to correct them.
Given this situation, it makes sense to order more if the beer is needed. And if the beer doesn't arrive, more orders must be placed. And in this context the task is to “manage our position”, keeping an eye out for changes in “external data” related to orders, beer deliveries and supplier delays.
But this perspective overlooks the way requests interact with the requests of others. For example, if large quantities of orders are placed, the supplier's inventory may run out, causing it to delay to deliver the orders later. And if you react to this by making more orders, you create a "vicious cycle" that causes problems to grow throughout the system.
Any player who falls into a panic can unleash this vicious cycle. There are two keys for the players. First, take into account orders, which take time to arrive, and use the rule "take two aspirin and wait". That is, wait for orders to be filled without despairing. Second, don't panic. If the beer cannot be delivered quickly, the worst decision is to order more beer. But this is sometimes tricky. It takes discipline to contain the urge to order when customers push. But without this discipline everyone in the system will suffer.
Learning disabilities and our ways of thinking
All the problems in Chapter 2 occur in the beer game:
- The first of these acts of "agree to our position", people do not consider how they affect the positions of others. When you are more "proactive", things get worse. As excessive orders, do not repair the situation until It is late. In general, you do not learn from experience because the consequences of the actions occur in another part of the system.
The conclusion of the beer game comes from seeing how learning disabilities are linked to thinking in complex situations. The game experience is unsatisfactory, because it is reactive.
However, most understand the origin of this attitude, since it is a concentration on immediate events. Players are overwhelmed by shrinking inventories, increasing orders, and late beer deliveries.
Explanations based on patterns of behavior should focus on looking at long-term trends and evaluating the implications. The "structural" explanation is less common and the most powerful. It focuses on the answer to the question What causes patterns of behavior? A structural explanation must: show that orders, deliveries and inventories act on patterns of instability and amplification; take into account the effects on the delay in order fulfillment and the vicious cycle that occurs with delays that lead to new orders.
Chapter 4. The laws of the fifth discipline
Today's problems derive from yesterday's "solutions".
We are often puzzled by the causes of our problems, and we just need to review solutions to other problems in the past. For example, a firm finds that its sales fell, however this is due to a quarterly discount program, or as the manager who manages to lower inventory costs, but causes sales agents to spend time responding to complaints from customers. customers for the delivery of shipments.
Or agents who arrest drug dealers on one street, but not those on other streets. Or they find that arrests result in increased crime rates as a result of drug reductions causing the price to rise and addicts desperate to maintain the habit.
The more you push, the more you push the system
Systems thinking has a name for this phenomenon: "compensatory feedback." This occurs when well-intentioned interventions elicit a response from the system that compensates for the product of the intervention. There are several examples of compensating feedback. As in the 1960s when there was a government program to build cheap housing, it caused poor people to migrate from other cities and rural areas to cities with better assistance programs. Which made the new housing units overcrowded and shut out the locals.
Compensatory feedback doesn't just happen in large systems. There are personal examples, such as the person who stops smoking, but gains weight and suffers from low self-esteem and returns to smoking to control stress. Or the mother who helps her son with his problems and makes him not know how to face differences.
Exerting more pressure, intervening in the system, is exhausting. We not only crawl into compensatory feedback but we often glorify the result.
Behavior improves before it gets worse
The answer that things get better before they get worse makes political decisions counterproductive, that is, decisions are made by virtue of factors that do not obey the intrinsic merits of various courses of action. In complex human systems, there is always a way to make things look good in the short term. But in the end the effects of compensating feedback inevitably come, but later.
The easy way reaches the same place
Everyone feels comfortable applying classical solutions to problems, attending to those already known. Sometimes things are in the light, but sometimes they are in the dark. If the solution was visible or obvious, you no longer have to search. The insistence on known solutions to problems that persist or worsen is an example of nonsemic thinking, what we call the "bigger hammer is needed here" syndrome.
The cure may be worse than the disease
Sometimes the easy or known solution can be effective, addictive and dangerous. For example, alcoholism begins as a solution to low self-esteem or job stress. And in the end it becomes a disease. The insidious consequence of unsystematic solutions is that they are needed more and more. This is why ill-conceived government interventions are ineffective and addictive, increasing dependency and reducing the community's ability to solve its own problems.
The fastest is the slowest
The old story of the turtle is slower but wins the race. For most American entrepreneurs the best growth rate is "lightning fast." But on the other hand most of the natural systems, have an intrinsically optimal growth. The same goes for organizations. The optimal rate is less than the fastest growth. When growth is excessive, the system tries to compensate for it by slowing down and jeopardizing the survival of the organization.
Cause and effect are not close in time and space
Of all the problems mentioned, we find a fundamental characteristic of complex human systems: the "cause" and the "effect" are not close in time and space. The "effect" is the obvious symptom that indicates the existence of problems: drug abuse, unemployment, etc. By "cause" it refers to the interaction of the underlying system that is most responsible for the generation of symptoms, which when detected, modifications can be made that will produce lasting improvements.
As discovered in the beer game (Chapter 3), the root of our problems is not in evil adversaries, but in ourselves. The first step to correcting this disparity is to abandon the notion that cause and effect are close in time and space.
Small changes can produce big results, but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
Systems thinking is called the "new science of grief," as it teaches that the most obvious solutions don't work. Short-term improvements are made which then make the situation worse. But this has another side. Systems thinking also teaches that small, well-focused acts produce significant and lasting improvements, if done in the right place. Systems thinkers call it the "lever principle."
Two seemingly contradictory goals can be achieved
The most tangled dilemmas cease to be a dilemma when viewed from a systemic perspective. For example deciding between high quality and low cost. You can do both by improving work processes that would avoid rework, eliminating quality inspectors, reducing customer complaints, reducing warranty costs, increasing customer loyalty, and lowering advertising and promotion costs.. With this, both quality and low cost goals can be achieved.
Dividing an elephant in half does not create two small elephants
Living systems have integrity. The heads of manufacturing, marketing, and research at many companies clearly see the problems of the company, but do not understand the interaction of the policies of their department with those of others. Seeing a “whole elephant” does not mean that every organizational problem can only be understood by looking at the entire organization. People decide to divide an elephant in two. In this case you do not get two small elephants, but a deranged, that is, it results in a problem where there is no possible leverage, because the leverage point is in interactions that cannot be reviewed only in a fragment.
No blame
It is customary to blame external circumstances for problems. To a "someone" - competitors, the press, the mood of the market, the government. Systems thinking says that there is nothing external; we and the cause of our problems are part of a system. The cure lies in the relationship with our "enemy."
Chapter 5. A Change of Focus
See the world again
We all like to put together a puzzle, see the picture in its entirety. Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. See relationships instead of things. It is a set of general principles. Today systems thinking is needed more than ever because of overwhelming complexity. Since it erodes trust and responsibility.
The practice of systems thinking begins with understanding a concept called feedback, which shows how acts can reinforce or counter each other. It is about learning to recognize recurring types of “structures”.
Circles of Chance
Reality is made up of circles but we see straight lines. Here begins the limitations of the systemic thinker.
One reason for the fragmentation arises from language. Which models perception. What we see depends on how prepared we are to see it. If we want to see systemic relationships, we need a language of relationships, a language of circles.
People confuse the term feedback or "feedback" and use it to gather opinions about some act carried out. Systems thinking sees feedback in a broader concept. It refers to any reciprocal flow of influence. It is an axiom that all influence is cause and effect.
Reinforcing and balancing feedback and delays: the building blocks of systems thinking
There are two types of feedback processes: reinforcement and balance. Reinforcing feedback processes are engines of growth. Compensated or stabilizing feedback operates when there is goal-oriented behavior.
Reinforced feedback: how small changes grow
If we are in a reinforcing feedback system, we may not see how small acts result in big consequences, for better or for worse. Viewing the system allows you to influence its operation.
In a reinforcing process like the Pygmalion effect, a small change feeds on itself. Everything is amplified, producing more movements in the same direction. A little act grow like a snowball.
Compensating processes: stability and resistance
A compensating system seeks stability. If the goal of the system is good, we will be happy. Otherwise, efforts to change the situation will be frustrated, until the goal can be changed.
In a compensatory system, self-correction maintains a goal or objective. How to fill the glass of water is a balancing process where the goal is a full glass. Or hiring new employees is a compensatory process with the goal of having a certain workforce or growth.
Delays: the key is "finally"
Systems seem to have a mind of their own. This is evident in the delays, pausing between our actions and the consequences. Delays can lead to big mistakes, or have a positive effect, if we know how to recognize and work with them.
The delay between actions and consequences are everywhere in human systems; We hire a person today but they are productive as the months go by.
Unrecognized delays can lead to instability and collapse, especially if they are prolonged. For example adjusting the temperature of the shower, it is much more difficult if there is a delay of ten minutes.
Chapter 6. Natural configurations: Patterns that control events
Structures of which we ignore their existence have us prisoners. Conversely, by learning to see those structures within which we operate, we activate a process of liberation from previously invisible forces and acquire the ability to work with and modify them.
In the young field of systems thinking it is the idea that certain structural patterns are recurrent. These are the key to seeing structures in our personal and work life.
Familiarizing yourself with systemic archetypes helps to solve problems that managers struggle with; the specialization and division of knowledge.
The purpose of the systemic archetypes is to recondition perceptions so that we know how to see structures in play, and see the point of leverage of those structures. Once those systemic archetypes are identified, high and low leverage zones are suggested to make the switch.
Archetype 1. Don't rush growth; remove the limiting factors.
Archetype 2. Don't solve symptoms. Solving the symptoms and not the root causes of the problem provide short-term benefits. The problem arises and the pressure for an answer grows. Therefore the ability to provide solutions can be stunted.
Chapter 7. The Lever Principle
The key to systems thinking is in the lever; to be able to find the point where acts and modifications in structures lead to significant and lasting improvements. The lever follows the principle of the economy of means, it seeks the place where the results do not come from large-scale efforts but from small, well-focused acts. Systems thinking is detrimental because it induces low-leverage changes: it focuses on symptoms where the stress is greatest and we repair or relieve symptoms. But the efforts improve the situation in the short term, and make it worse in the long term.
It is difficult to find a disagreement on the principle of the lever. But the leverage point is not obvious to many of the systems players. They see the structures underlying the acts. The aim of the systemic archetypes, such as the limit of growth and load shifting, is to help you see the structures and find the leverage point, between the pressures and current business situations.
Chapter 8. The art of seeing the trees while still seeing the forest
Systems thinking consists of not ignoring the complexity of organizing in a coherent way the highlighting of the causes of problems and how to solve them but permanently. At present the fundamental problem for us as individuals is that we have too much information, therefore we must know how to distinguish what is important from what is irrelevant and those variables that determine secondary aspects.
In addition, we must lose sight of the importance of systematic thinking, therefore we must focus on that fundamental part of the problems and temporarily give less priority to the secondary part of these, since if priority is given to the secondary, sometimes it is not possible. gets to distinguish the root of the problems.
As can be seen in this chapter, the case of People Express, we can appreciate the above and this is decisive for excellent decision-making and within various areas such as innovative policies, human resources. If we see problems as areas of opportunity and with systemic thinking we will have the key to success.
Chapter 9. Personal Domain
Organizations can learn only through individuals who learn, that is why personal growth and continuous learning, together are the first discipline of intelligent organizations.
The personal domain is based on abilities, capacities, a deep sense of commitment, likewise always implies spiritual growth; on the other hand, it focuses on the importance of walking all the way, not only reaching the final destination and also implies the need for continuous learning.
Personal mastery goes beyond skills and abilities. We must view life as a work of creation from a creative perspective and not just reactive.
The discipline of personal mastery.
Personal mastery is developed and enhanced through certain practices and principles:
- Personal vision: allows us to know ourselves (tastes, preferences, priorities), that is, what allows us to grow and develop, know our limits or let ourselves be carried away by our creativity and simply destroy those obstacles that limit us to do what we want Sustaining creative tension: refers to all those barriers that do not allow us to achieve what we want and forces us to give up reaching our goals and objectives. We must root in our minds the idea that we can achieve our goals and imagine every detail of our goal so that in this way we let ourselves be carried away by our ideals and dreams and in this way we can achieve what we propose. Structural conflict: power of impotence. Some feelings like fear, failure, helplessness and resistance,they put a stop to our personal growth. Let's understand that structural conflict is a situation in which people feel powerless to change certain situations, but if people learn to face reality or change their beliefs or ideas, they can acquire the power to develop more personal mastery. Personal domain and the fifth discipline: If individuals understood the essence of systematic thinking, they could get a better handle on personal domain and thus take advantage of its characteristics.They can acquire the power to develop more personal mastery. Personal Mastery and the Fifth Discipline: If individuals understood the essence of systematic thinking, they could gain better management of personal mastery and thus take advantage of its characteristics.They can acquire the power to develop more personal mastery. Personal Mastery and the Fifth Discipline: If individuals understood the essence of systematic thinking, they could get a better handle on personal mastery and thus take advantage of its characteristics.
Smart organizations stimulate the development of personal mastery, as well as a climate in which people can establish points of view, appreciate sincerity, among other things.
Chapter 10. Mental Models
Some of our ideas fail even though these are the best, because, on many occasions, they are not put into practice or are not prepared to be carried out, if this is not taken into account it will remain as a simple idea and we will not be able to consider it as a concrete fact which was carried out and achieved. Another situation in which ideas fail is because they are not seen as a whole, but rather as a systemic thought; If we transfer all of the above to organizations, they are not able to achieve success, they become stagnant, which causes organizations to lose themselves; Likewise, organizations are not interested in renewing themselves in all aspects, since instead of creating something new they only prefer to make some modifications to what they are experiencing.
The new perspective of business consists of creating competitive strategies to be different from other companies in the same field and the key is to develop skills through the use of shared mental models.
Hanover reveals contributions about mental models:
- A leader has to relate to continuous improvement in their mental models. Mental models must guide us towards autonomous decisions. Mental models have to adapt to any situation or environment. Top management of companies must make decisions and one of their roles is to direct the organization as a comprehensive system to achieve a goal. The work teams they develop are more competitive when they work as a team than individually.
Smart organizations encourage their staff to refine the mental models used, these organizations discover effective ways to change the mental models in use by changing patterns.
Chapter 11. Shared vision
When there is a common identity and a true vision, people learn and excel. A shared vision comes from a common interest. In smart organizations, people try to establish shared visions to feel connected with some important task.
A shared vision is not an idea that has to be imposed within an organization, rather it must be a force that unites the organizations, that generates a consistent union, this result occurs because there is a commitment to the vision to such a degree of modify individual ideas, thoughts, and attitudes in order to achieve collective goals.
Visions create interest and creativity on the part of employees and the organization to achieve your objectives, but it goes without saying that visions do not always come out in a positive way. In the vision what matters is the projection that it can achieve and not what it wants to achieve.
The roots of a shared vision are found in people's values, interests, and aspirations. In order to achieve success in a shared vision, it is to merge the individual vision of the collaborators with the vision of the company, so, if the company manages to develop the vision of the collaborators, they will reciprocate in a positive way (there will be feedback), this It will generate reaching the individual vision of the collaborators and this in turn will promote the development of the company's vision.
Smart companies build viable and far-reaching common visions and once established, these smart organizations organize and focus their efforts towards common viewpoints.
Chapter 12. Team Learning
Team learning is the process whereby the actions and capacities of a company to lead, work hand in hand, if this does not happen, learning becomes only actions.
Unfortunately, there are no perfect paths, therefore, the ideal when faced with a problem is to make a decision, be it correct or incorrect, since in the end, whatever the result, we will obtain a great teaching.
Team learning has 3 dimensions:
- The need to think smart when issues are complex The need for innovative and coordinated actions The need to share new skills and practices
The main wealth that can exist in a team is the diversification of ideas and when detecting the ideal it must be put into practice. The bases for good performance are dialogue and how clear a message can be. Team learning is a comprehensive topic and is the central rule of thumb for a smart organization.
Chapter 13. Opening
We can mention another point of view on the issue of decision-making, which are usually made by higher-ranking personnel in the company. On the subject of internal policies there are situations such as when the creator of an idea is more important than the idea itself, this can minimize the potential of the results generated by intelligent organizations.
Participatory opening and reflective opening. When you have an initiative and it is put into practice, you must first model new strategies, making use of dialogue; With this we can assess whether the ideas are effective, at the same time, we reflect on them in order to innovate or have an improvement.
Openness and complexity. It is almost impossible for a person to have total mastery of all areas, both personal and business, it is throughout our lives that we acquire learning in a way, that is why we never stop learning new things. It is very difficult to achieve total knowledge of things, since every day and every moment we are absorbing learning, “we never finish learning”. The essence of openness is to have an open mind to new and innovative ideas and in this way enrich ourselves every day of our lives both personally, professionally and at work, the same can be applied to companies.
Chapter 14. Localism
In this chapter we are going to address the topic of localism, which has four basic principles:
- Release commitment: people do not like impositions, that is why when they contribute ideas and commit, they acquire a high degree of responsibility, unlike if the ideas are imposed Freedom to act: it is proven that when collaborators are They commit themselves to perform their work better than if they are under supervision. Test their own ideas: people must learn to evaluate themselves, in this way we grow. By evaluating ourselves we can discover countless things that we did not have in mind, if we analyze or investigate, with the answers, we relearn to do things. If this applies to collaborators within the organizational scope, both self-evaluation and commitment will occur naturally. Being responsible for our actions:People must learn to take responsibility for our own actions and for the results they generate, good or bad. This can also carry over to work within the company.
Localism gives priority to the philosophy that if a collaborator makes a mistake, they should not be punished or sanctioned, on the contrary, they should be forgiven, since the collaborator would be showing that he is committed to his work and makes certain decisions with the aim of improving, but it can happen that sometimes the result is not what is expected, although he is sure that the decision he made is the correct one. This attitude is "control without control", that is, they can make decisions freely, however, the results of their decisions are controlled by themselves.
Chapter 15. A manager's time
As time goes by, we forget that it is important to reflect on what we are doing, whether we are doing the right thing or not, where we come from and where we are going. The routine surrounds us and we do not stop to think why wasting time instead of taking advantage of it; We can transport these situations to companies, when senior managers design strategies and set objectives and when they face a series of obstacles, they decide to change course instead of reflecting on the why (s) of the results that are being obtained and that they were not as expected; company managers must focus their efforts on the possibilities of the future, instead of focusing on present disagreements, therefore, they must design learning systems for the future,as this will make the organization achieve real success.
Smart organizations must be clear about the difference between action and learning (learning through experience is possible only if the consequences of important decisions are relatively fast). Because while they are paying too much attention to the actions of their collaborators, the staff of the organization has to develop an additional capacity to implement, study and test new ideas and, remember that in the end the managers are the ones who set the pace of work of the collaborators and they abide by what is indicated to them.
Chapter 16. Ending the war between work and family
Mastery and learning must flourish at work and in the family. A smart organization has an obligation to know that it cannot support personal mastery, but rather drives people's individual aspirations. If a company wants positive results from its employees, it must have the ability to combine personal visions with organizational visions.
The structure of the family / work imbalance. Traditional companies tend to foster conflicts between work and family, you must find a way to stabilize this situation; In contrast, we have intelligent organizations, which require personal control from their collaborators in every way, which is why they create a good balance between work and family. Large companies offer benefits that strengthen the bond with the family, for example, we have companies that have sports and / or cultural centers or carry out recreational activities to increase the family bond.
For smart organizations to strike the right balance, they must: give individuals freedom, highlight the importance of personal mastery, give importance and recognition to family matters, and provide support services, among other issues.
Chapter 17. Microworld: The Smart Organization Technology
Microworlds allow you to experience situations that would cost any organization money. These small worlds can implement the ideas that we have to solve current problems and pose future problems. They allow to put into practice ideas of the executives of the organizations. Being able to risk, simulate, vary the time of the performance, accelerate it or take it very calmly.
Microworlds allow us to be the wildest idea in the world that can be experienced, carried out at least in simulation. This allows us to know the different scenarios that can be presented and if the ideas we propose will be of great help to organizations. We can manipulate the different variables as we need them to be able to observe the actions of the events that we perform.
In summary, microworlds allow:
- Integration of the micro world with the “real” world Acceleration and deceleration of time Understanding of space Isolation of variables Experimental orientation Pauses for reflection Theoretical-based strategy Institutional memory
Chapter 18. The Leader's New Role
This chapter refers to the fact that current leaders must be that, leaders who motivate their collaborators.
To be able to take advantage of the tools of systems thinking, use the ones that best suit the organization. Trying to teach the collaborators, learn with them and be able to learn and then teach them. Make a good creative tension that bears good results, and allows innovation in organizations. Each organization is different from the others, each executive expresses different positions, different feelings and how it is commonly said; everyone talks about how they are doing at the fair.
The leader must be a mentor who encourages the construction of a shared vision, who is capable of teaching his collaborators. And you can give direction to your organization, which is capable of designing and not just making use of what already exists.
Chapter 19. A sixth discipline?
An approach to the fifth discipline tells us that it had to arise from an innovation and thus be conceived, it is not surprising to think that following this trend in the future, a sixth discipline may emerge that allows a better understanding of intelligent organizations.
Chapter 20. Rewriting the Code
Intelligent organizations are pillars for a transformation in organizations, we must take into account that the disciplines of intelligent organizations are useful not only for themselves but also for the people who are part of them.
It is normal that we are suddenly thinking: for people? And indeed, if we can use discipline within an intelligent organization that can change our way of facing life and the fifth discipline would not only benefit organizations also personally to the members of said intelligent organizations.
Chapter 21. The Indivisible Whole
In this final chapter, we are going to refer in an analogy to what is experienced in space with what an intelligent organization can be, as we discover things or situations, we overcome barriers, we learn, we collaborate and finally we repeat the cycles again, returning them to reinforce or refine them. For all this we must apply systemic thinking, in such a way that we get to make use of THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE.
