When you have a performance issue in the team how do you approach it? Do you look at individual performance? Do you review each step of the process? It’s natural to try to see at which point things aren’t working; the holy grail of the Single Point of Failure, but it’s stopping you seeing the bigger picture. 

Aristotle said

“the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

and this is ever true in teams and organisations. It’s not possible to look at each person in isolation; at each subprocess; at each system, and find the whole answer. After 25 years in Technology and Customer Operations, problem solving for a living, I can attest that the root cause is never singular. There will be unintended consequences if any issue is fixed in a vacuum. 

Whole Systems Thinking helps us look at each element and recognise the interconnectedness of all parts of a system or organisation: individuals, processes, technology, culture, and structures. Where are the strengths and the weaknesses? How do different parts of the system support or weaken the other? 

To build a high performing team we must consider how they operate within a broader, whole system, context.

There is an immutable triad when it comes to organisations systems – people, process, technology. If you change one without considering the others it will create ripples and potential issues elsewhere. 

People

When it comes to your team, do they all think and act in a similar way? Do you have diversity of thinking? Are dissenting voices and constructive discussion encouraged? Do you hire for fit – creating a deep shared blind spot? Is there a deep culture of collaboration or is there competition for the next promotion or public plaudit?

Actively promoting Psychological Safety can enable whole systems thinking by ensuring everyone is safe enough to share ideas and ask questions. Sometimes it’s the question everyone is scared to ask because they think it’s a stupid question that helps unlock another level of understanding about what’s occurring. 

If you are familiar with the work of Carol Dweck, you’ll have heard of the “growth mindset”, but do you actively encourage it in all of your team? We can do hard things and move out of our comfort zone when we feel safe enough to do so. Enabling a growth mindset ensures your team can move past old patterns and ways of working to find improvements as well as seeing obstacles as opportunities to grow and learn rather than simply problems to be overcome. 

Process

Processes evolve as an organisation grows and evolves. Developing a deep understanding how those processes support your customer journey, and how they all interact, is critical if you want to ensure you are working effectively (I purposefully use the word effective and not efficient when it comes to processes, as doing the wrong stuff faster isn’t helpful!). Having a whole systems view of all of the inputs and outputs is critical. 

Understanding how your sub-processes fit into the larger organisational context and how it impacts on other systems is at the core of whole-systems-thinking. If you change the way your team works; how they take inputs or create outputs; what they produce, without considering the upstream or downstream impacts, you may discover you create more problems that you fix. 

1. Starting with a fully formed view of all of the ways of working (official and unofficial), dataflows, process steps, inputs and outputs is crucial. 
   • Define how things work (or don’t work) and measure it. Without a baseline you’ll only be able to guess at the impact of changes made (good or bad).
   • Having a solid understanding of the happy path is also central to your success. Where do customers or employees fall off the happy path and why? 
2. Identify and describe the problem you are trying to fix or the change you are planning to make. What will ‘better’ look like? Make sure you are clear both on the starting point and the end goal.  
   • Analyse all of the potential causes for the ineffectiveness or performance issues you are seeing. This is where the diversity of thinking in the team will pay dividends. 
   • Champion deep collaboration and a continuous improvement mindset.
3. As you develop and implement changes there are three critical steps. 
   • Firstly, consider the impacts on all other parts of the whole organisation. 
   • Secondly, COMMUNICATE. Talk to your stakeholders, providers, customers, etc. Have you missed any critical information or impacts? Be open to feedback and make appropriate adjustments. 
   • Finally, recognise that it’s never done. Change and improvement is iterative and constant. 

Technology

Technology as the root of the issue

When people think about problem-solving, improving organisational performance, and growth it is often Technology that is considered first. However, as a wise man (Grady Booch) once said, a fool with a tool is still a fool. Driving technology change without due consideration of the whole system is a fools errand. 

Technology is often pointed to as the root-cause of performance issues and sometimes this is true. However, reviewing only the technology and not the people and processes the technology supports, will lead to other problems surfacing. Applying the process thinking approach discussed above will help us uncover how the technology in place supports, helps, and hinders the organisation. 

Technology as a tool for change

Whole systems thinking can be fundamentally supported by technology as well. Using the tools available to collect and analyse data to enable us to develop a broader and deeper picture of what is happening within the organisation can highlight unknown areas. Technology can also model and simulate the impacts of changes, allowing us to test and model changes before implementing them in the organisation. Additionally, technology can be used to automate aspects of systems, freeing your teams to work on deeper and more interesting work. 

While technology is a core part of the system, but it is never the silver bullet.

In summary, whole-systems thinking can unlock performance and enable organisational (and personal) growth as well as ensuring changes made don’t impact other parts of the organisation. People, Processes, and Technology all need to be fully considered. Communication, collaboration, and psychological safety are all crucial components of successful change. 

For more information about whole systems thinking, improving team performance, or personal growth contact me for a chat, or follow me for more great content.