DECISION AND STRATEGY SUPPORT

On this page:

• Aspects of a good decision or strategy
• Making an informed decision
• Developing a strategy the systemic way
• Is this strategy realistic?

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.

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.

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.

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

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