“It is impossible for a man to learn...

...what he thinks he already knows.”

This business cycle has already generated a multitude of discussions among leaders from all types of businesses on how to navigate the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business environment. From individual client leaders to groups of leaders in the multiple leadership institutes we facilitate, the challenge is always how they think about, or frame, the challenges in front of them. In past articles, we tended to focus on critical thinking as the core answer to these challenges. However, in this discussion, we step back a bit and focus on a broader view of the challenges through the lens of systems thinking.

In our book, “Finding the Missing Piece, The Impact of Effective Communication on Sustainable Success”, we define systems thinking as a holistic approach focusing on how a system’s components work together, how a system operates over time as well as how it operates in the context of other larger systems. It is the foundation of our organizational Business Alignment Maturity Model (BAMM) we use when coaching business leaders. In the leader conversations, we hear challenges of finding THE problem to solve that will help generate desired results.

Defining THE problem is in itself an issue and a common trap leaders fall into as they want to simplify the challenge. While there is nothing inherently wrong with simplicity, seeking to narrow VUCA-driven business challenges to a single issue creates a series of unintended consequences and misalignment within the business system itself. With that being said, let’s look at what leaders can do to ensure they do not fall into the single issue trap in a VUCA business environment.

Document the systems from end to end. The more common practice is to document processes, especially core processes that directly impact clients and revenue. Sales, engineering, customer service, operations are all processes in and by themselves. However, how does the system document handoffs and interconnections between these processes? Handoffs are where most errors occur partially due to the lack of documentation and clarity around responsibilities during handoff periods. The lesson we learned early on is to create and document dual accountabilities around handoffs, for example between engineering and project management. The clearer the expectations, the clearer the outcome!

Regularly walk the systems end to end. The challenge with documented systems is the lack of a means to ensure they are still relevant with the passing of time and constantly changing business assumptions and conditions. Generally, we call this stapling an order to yourself and walking the order all the way through from order to invoice. At each step, the leader questions the relevance of the actions with particular emphasis on the handoffs between functions. We also coach leaders to not only ask what happens at each step in the system, and to also ask, “Based on what...?” to ensure the logic behind each action is still relevant. As we wrote several years ago, the ultimate goal is to ensure the system cannot be executed poorly!

Actively solicit feedback on system performance. Even leaders who walk the system will still need to encourage continuous feedback on how well the system is producing desired results. The people who do the work will always sense problems and solutions well before leadership does. The question is whether leadership is listening for this “ground truth”. An expression we’ve used frequently goes, “Expertise without curiosity is arrogance in disguise”. Curiosity up and down the organization chart begins with the leaders creating the level of trust where anyone who sees a problem and a solutions can raise their voice to enable action. At least once in each of our executive leadership roles, we received feedback from those who actually do the work that led to significant positive shifts in our systems thinking!

Business systems thrive in a VUCA business environment when they are documented end to end through all the handoffs, when leaders walk the systems periodically to validate the documentation is still relevant and openly listens to real time feedback on the system’s performance from the people who do the work. Leaders who believe they already know how the system is working without these steps will fall prey to what the Greek philosopher Epictetus alluded to in the title quote; it will be impossible for them to learn!

How are you continuously learning from your business system? If you’re not sure, we can help.

Lead Well!