Beyond the Surface: Elevating Leadership with Systems Thinking

One of my clients (an international organization) kept changing their Community Manager. Every year, the newly hired person would leave. The CEO claimed it was just a matter of time before they found the right person for this demanding position.

After 3 years and 4 Community Directors, I suggested we go deeper into the problem by interviewing those who left. Underneath the pattern of people leaving the job, we found that the Community Directors were excluded from board meetings, and they lacked sufficient support staff, leading to burnout. The underlying belief within the organization was that the position was not important enough to warrant adequate resources. 

By going beyond the surface-level issue of high turnover, we identified patterns, structural problems, and beliefs that were the actual root of the problem. Now our action will be more strategic. In other words, we adopted a Systems Thinking leadership approach.

⚙️ What is Systems Thinking?

Systems Thinking enables us to see beyond what is immediately in front of us, to see all stakeholders and their relationships, so that we can identify where is the origin of a problem. Rather than focusing solely on individual parts, it encourages us to understand the bigger picture and get to the root cause.

In the example above, instead of focusing only on the Community Manager, we identified other elements and structures of the system, such as the CEO, board meetings, budget, and staff constraints. We uncovered an underlying mental model - the undervaluation of the Community Manager's role. These insights allow for strategic leadership interventions to drive change.

To practice Democratic Leadership, you must understand the relationships between different system parts. Ensure that power is not concentrated in one area, but instead, it flows throughout the system. This allows for meaningful inclusion of all system components in decision-making & co-creation.

🗻 Navigating the Depths: The Iceberg Model

The Iceberg Model is a simple yet powerful tool for Systems Thinking. Here are the 4 levels of thinking:

1️⃣ The Event Level - What do I observe? What is happening? The event level, like waking up with a cold, is our typical perception of the world. It's what we can immediately observe. Although some problems can be solved with simple adjustments at this level, often we need to look beyond just treating symptoms.

2️⃣ The Pattern Level - How often is this happening? Is there a pattern? Observing patterns, such as catching more colds without sufficient rest, allows us to predict and prevent similar future events.

3️⃣ The Structure Level - What's behind this repeated behavior/event? What enables it? The structure level underlies the pattern level. It answers "What causes the observed pattern?" such as increased stress at work from a new promotion policy, poor eating habits during stress, or the inconvenient location of healthy food sources contributing to catching a cold.

4️⃣ The Mental Model Level - What beliefs hold these structures in place?  Mental models, learned subconsciously from society or family, influence our attitudes, beliefs, and values. They may include beliefs related to our careers, the cost of healthy food, or the notion that rest signifies a lack of motivation.

✊ Action item: Uncover your System! Choose one event, one challenge that you want to understand better, and use the Iceberg model to go deep. 

☝️ Remember!

Don’t fall for your first (usually trigger-driven) interpretation of an event, behavior, or perspective. Systems Thinking is about not jumping to conclusions, it's about going deeper to understand other players and relationships to create multiple interpretations of what is happening and what is really behind the problem you are trying to solve. That’s the path to becoming a System Thinker!

Take care,

Nikola

📚 Book Recommendation

Learn more about Systems Thinking by reading “The Fifth Discipline" by MIT Professor Peter Senge. Easy to read, well-written book with useful examples. HERE you can read our short summary of this book and the key takeaways.