Business Design & Systems Thinking
What is an important link between Business Design and Systems Thinking?
Donella H. Meadows opens her book “Thinking in systems” with a quote from Robert Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” that links Business Design to Systems Thinking and dynamics:
“If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory.”
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The annecdotal quote reminds us that innovation, mutation or transformational efforts or new designs won’t make a dent on an organization if it only stays superficial .. meaning if the work only introduces a new idea, prototype, concept or tool, without changing the underlying layers or forces of influence (to use a systems-term) of the organization.
I have lost count of how many Design Thinking efforts I’ve seen which ends with the workshop. Because the creative practice of design thinking didn’t include the operational or systemic elements .. it only focused on ideas .. and produced beatiful ideas, but they were all misfits to the current organization and it won’t adopt them.
And this is where Systems Thinking is different from the traditional approach, because it offers a set of additional leverages creating systemic long term change.
David Ehrlichman organizes Donella’s initial forces of influence here:
System Infrastructure
- Adding constraints ..
- Changing rates ..
- Increasing buffers ..Information Flows
- Modifying feedback loops ..
- Expanding communication systems ..Organizing Principles
- Changing the rules that govern the system ..
- Enhancing the organization of the system ..
- Aligning shared goals of the system ..Mindsets
- Modifying the beliefs that guide behaviors in the system ..
- Expanding the system’s ability to transcend paradigms altogether ..
Read David’s full post here:
https://medium.com/converge-perspectives/identifying-leverage-points-in-a-system-3b917f70ab13
Business design and design thinking needs to go full stack if it is to offer the desired long term outcomes to the business and its customers. It first needs to think about any changes to the operational environment that is necessary to make the idea feasible, and also reflect on the systemic changes to make sure the organization doesn’t just snap back after some time because doing one workshop didn’t really change anything .. and the organization is already back to rebuilding their old factory…
Find Donella H. Meadows full article here:
https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
And book here:
