Create,
test and rapidly comprehend strategies through
visual analogy. Feel the impact of options under
evaluation – gain
insights that evoke initiatives.
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The traditional
Western reductionist approach to decision-making
and strategy development separates the “issue” or
the task into an arbitrary number of elements,
invariably separating people from processes and
technology – the idea
being that acute focus can then be brought to bear
on each of these elements. The resultant answers
to each of these acts of analysis are then assembled
as the “whole”. Strategies that are
developed using this approach must then struggle
to re-unite these elements into a cohesive and
compelling story – and hope they didn’t
miss anything in the gaps between the elements.
By adopting a continuous, inclusive “holistic” view,
the systemic approach to decision-making and strategy
development concentrates on incorporating the people,
processes and technologies, and gains more than
just the sum of these parts. Everything in between
is gained as well.
Increasingly these days, strategies seek to “innovate” by
way of leveraging new technologies and creating
new business models – this technology
driven innovation can
yield great results, but only if everyone understands
their role and how it relates to the expected benefit.
| Aspects
of a good decision or strategy |
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On-going organisational development can only be
maintained if a clear vision of the objective has
been established and is understood by all. Decisions
and strategies need to be transparent, with all
affected people, as well as internal and external
influences considered.
The economic and emotional
situation of the company as a whole needs to
be considered.
Ultimately, every approach to strategy development
aims to help a client be more successful; some – and
the systemic approach is
but one of them – have
a very different way of doing so.
| Making
an informed decision |
|
By definition, to
make an informed decision you must first gather “enough” information
about each option in question. This
may include not just pros and cons, but also
who else is involved, willingly or not, or what
will happen in the bigger picture as a result
of choosing this option, etc.
Gathering facts about options is generally straight
forward, unless the subject is too complex for
the human mind to grasp – for example how
individuals and groups will react to a proposition.
Envisaging the future state for each option is
even more difficult. What is a positive for one
person, can be negative for another – and
that can change over time too. Advice is more difficult
to get as envisaging the future is entirely personal.
When making a personal decision, we often follow
a “gut” feeling. How can we
find our gut feeling? What does our gut
say when two options look equally attractive? Is
there a “group gut feeling?”
Examples of decisions you might
have to make in relation to your career or your
organisation are:
- Should I stay or leave?
- Which of the applicants
would best fit the position?
- Does this function
need to be filled?
- Do we take on this challenge
or let it pass?
Systemic
organisational constellations help
improve the making of such decisions, they help
in making informed decisions providing
more information than mere facts, they tap into
the knowing
field we
sub-consciously carry with us and around us:
- Scenarios
can be tested before a decision is made
- The effect
a certain decision may have on you can be “felt” beforehand
- New
perspectives can be found and tested
We have
specific systemic
constellation structures available
for testing various options.
| Developing
a strategy the systemic way |
|
Strategies, and the developing of strategies,
have come a long way since their origins in the
military and they are now applied to all areas
of business, including marketing, economics, trading,
technology and, of course, politics.
The larger enterprises grow, the more
important it is that they have a well-developed
strategy. Strategies need to be developed
laterally and be flexible enough to support intelligent
action, and are not to be confused with step-by-step
planning.
When developing a strategy, a systemic
test can be used in the form of a systemic
organisational constellation to check
the roadworthiness of the strategy.
Why would you use such a systemic test?
All companies exists around some form of formal
structure. Many traditional strategic tools are
available to work with these and we do not intend
to replace them. Beside, or more likely beneath,
these visible formal structures there are also hidden
informal structures, social networks which
can have very strong influence on the success or
failure of a strategy.
Our systemic
tools,
and especially systemic
organisational constellations, helps
to better discern these informal structures. For
example when implementing new software, constellations
can be used to identify hidden structural resistance
to the new system.
Systemic organisational constellations and in particular management
constellations can also be used as an analytical
tool to discover and analyse bottlenecks, for example:
- A
department is overloaded, too few staff for the
work to be done
- A department is obsolete
- Organisational structure
is unclear or misunderstood
- A function is assigned
to a person with the wrong skills
- Boundaries between
roles are not well defined
- Communication structure
is missing or insufficient
- A budget is not based
on the right assumptions
| Is
this strategy realistic? |
|
The use of systemic tests
will not take away your power of decision. A management
constellation, or a systemic
constellation of any kind, never substitutes action
on your part. It helps you to refocus the organisation
on achievable targets in topics such as:
- Strategic
decision making
- Stakeholder relationships
- Marketing strategy
- Project management
Our work will give you a map to help find your way through the maze
of possibilities and opinions, but
the map is not the real territory – that
we will leave to you to explore yourself.
Preeti Helena & Malcolm
Duffield
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