What is Systems Thinking?
Systems thinking is an ongoing process that involves seeing the big picture, even while acknowledging the importance of details. One of the pillars of servant leadership, systems thinking allows the leader to make decisions that take the entire organization and its values into account. For example, the leader of one department would not make a choice that adversely affected any other department in the organization. A systems thinker aligns ethics with organizational goals.
Systems are by definition complex, involving multiple roles, components, values, and views. Thus to be a systems thinker, a servant leader needs to be comfortable with complexity (Laub, 2018; Sipe & Frick, 1993). A servant leader needs to respect diversity of opinion and outlook, and draw connections between multiple parties and their seemingly conflicting needs. Likewise, systems thinking requires adaptability and flexibility. The servant leader needs to be aware of his or her own assumptions and biases and willing to surrender those if it means creating a more harmonious system. In other words, systems thinking means considering the greater good of the organization rather than fixating on short-term or narrowly focused objectives (Sipe & Frick, 1993).
With systems thinking, a servant leader is empowered...
References
Davis, C. (2018). Servant leadership and systems thinking. https://research.phoenix.edu/center-workplace-diversity-and-inclusion-research/blog/servant-leadership-and-systems-thinking
Laub, J. (2018). Leveraging the Power of Servant Leadership. West Palm Beach: Palgrave.
Sipe, J.W. & Frick, D.M. (1993). Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership. New Jersey: Paulist.
System Issues & Chikfila Systems thinking is a way of synthesizing the issues surrounding any organization in both a macro and micro manner. This allows more shared values through teamwork, mental paradigms, the ability to think in the future, and look at projects in a way that are best for the organization as a holistic entity. Thus, when the process of inquiry is moved from the individual and rote (only knowledge)
4) II. Peter Senge - the Learning Organization Peter Senge, who describes himself as the "idealistic pragmatist" states that learning organizations are: "...organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together." (1990: p.3) the learning organization in the view of
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.. Second, to understand a system we need to understand how it fits into the larger system of which it is a part... Third, and most important, what we call the parts need not be taken as primary. In fact, how we define the parts is fundamentally a matter of perspective and purpose, not intrinsic in the nature of the 'real thing' we are looking at. (Kofman and Senge, 1993,
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