Holistic System Thinking

I was thinking about how I can use System thinking and Lean within my organisation. For those that don't know what systems thinking is, it's basically about looking at your organisation holistically ie as a whole rather than a sum of it's parts. "Lean" on the other hand is a methodology used to create innovation, change, reduction in waste in the business but I'll discuss this and a few other things in a future post.

So anyway, back to Systems thinking.

Imagine that your business is a living breathing organism. It consumes what it needs to stay at peak/optimal performance, breathes, has co-ordinated movement of it's parts, has bone for strength and muscle for movement, is made up of tiny cells that are the powerhouse that keeps the organism alive, but also has specialist cells that excel at single tasks/focus, the organism eliminates what it can't use and even has social skills within it's own kind and looks good for other examples of it's breed.

Now how does this analogy of an organism apply to your business /company?

Try and look at business from a holistic and systemic way of thinking ie look at the total business rather than just it's parts. Now look at what makes up the parts and how they work together and are even interrelated and connected.

A business consumes resources, it has a lifeblood and pulse of people that are skilled in certain tasks that deliver operational success, processes, policies and methodologies are its strength and backbone, but flexibility and innovation are the muscles that adapt, learn, grow, it eliminates whatever doesn't help it to grow/succeed, only 'eats' what it needs to function optimally, even has an outwards focus on how to attract people to use the services provided and tries to make itself attractive so that customers choose them over other equally attractive options.

So the key question I like to ask businesses is "Why would a customer choose you over another business" - what do your customers really want and how do you provide this value and deliver this to them? It's not about creating customer demand/needs though. It's about meeting existing customer needs.

To really get to the heart of what our customers want I suggest that people use system thinking to look at the whole business and how all the different areas work together for a common purpose. It's no use giving your customers something they don't need or want. Focus on what your customers want and shape the business to
ensure it hits the customer need. Assess common customer needs and make them efficient and fast. Make them the core of what you do and make customers happy. Then because you have happy customers you can work on other important customer needs.

Now this could occur over time (eg the business adapts with the customers changing needs), or it could occur suddenly (eg our customer now wants applications that they can use on their latest gadget). How does the business survive, grow and even adapt to such rapid change?

Today's challenge is to look at what shape the business is currently in, look at the business's current position where they want to position themselves, look at the parts that need to change and then start to make the changes reality. This is hard, lets be honest. To do this however you have to be respectful of all the parts so that they all work together instead of work against each other.

So, there you have it. A challenge to be sure. How would you adapt this within your own business? My organisation will have its challenges to be sure, but I think that looking to the future, it's the businesses that are prepared to innovate and stay fresh that will remain competitive and profitable because they 'get' their customers. This is my world and where I plan to take my team and influence as broadly as I can. You've got to take small steps before you can run. This is going to be interesting....