systems thinking' is a new approach to problem solving and performance enhancement. It is the approach that allows a person to think in terms of the entire system and not its individual parts. Previously the focus was on the parts and it was important to study the parts separately. This method was called analysis and it worked for some time. But with organizations growing, it is no longer possible to stay detached from the whole system and thus systems thinking method is being taught and promoted. This is where an individual thinks of not only his place and position but does so in terms of the whole system to determine what role he plays and how his position affects the system as a whole. Kofman & Senge explain:
The defining characteristic of a system is that it cannot be understood as a function of its isolated components. First, the behavior of the system doesn't depend on what each part is doing but on how each part is interacting with the rest... 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, p. 27)
This systems thinking allows an individual to grow as part of the whole system and not an individual entity. Individual success is thus dependent on how the system functions and how he manages to influence it from his position in it. For example, a manager in the advertising department can no longer think about his department alone but needs to understand that his performance will directly influence other departments such as sales and finance.
Reference:
Kofman, Fred and Peter M. Senge "Communities of Commitment: The Heart of Learning Organizations." Organization Dynamics.
Despite the occasionally inherent resistance to the learning process in some systems and within certain individuals, Senge stresses a manager must have a vision of a learning organization as a group of people who are continually enhancing their capabilities to create what they want to create. He calls his own view as that of an idealistic pragmatist, seeing organizations as places "where people continually expand their capacity to create
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
This is especially important in the context of the Broker Front Office Tool (BFOT) strategies aimed at streamlining attracting, selling to, and servicing indirect channel partners and resellers. This aspect of bringing the Voice of the Customer (VoC) into the transformation of it initiatives into channel-based strategies is even more difficult than evolving change management programs within the four walls of any organization. Bringing change to agents and the
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