Suppose we are to assemble a team for important tasks. We want the best to do the best. Therefore, we gather
- a very good computer engineer
- a very good project manager
- a very good analyst
It is important that they are good at what they do, because they will be facing challenges in their field and we want to make sure they follow the best practices for the known problems and deal proficiently with the unknowns. What do you expect to happen later on? The project should be a success, shouldn’t it? After all, the expected challenges were dealt with and the unexpected were tackled in the best possible way.
If you wondered, while thinking about this brightful scenario, that something is missing in this picture, you may be already thinking in a systems perspective.
What’s missing here is
What are those very good people working for exactly?
The matter is not what they are doing. We know already that
- the computer engineer should be making good engineering
- the project manager should be doing good management
- the analyst should be doing good analysis
Since what is being done intersects different areas, we can put the team doing precisely something that should not be done, while still being able to claim
I am following the best practices of my craft.
The systems view is the additional space created when relating different work fields in this example. Just like in mathematics, that new space is n-dimensional and cannot be fully described by partial combinations of each basic dimension (any n-k-dimensional space), and the same way, we cannot perceive the objects in the upper dimensional space by looking at each of the dimensions alone. This means that although we can reduce our analysis to each of those fields alone and still perceive some properties of the upper dimensional space, there will always be some color missing on the painting unless we take into account the system generated by those components. If systems thinking requires something from that computer engineer, or that project manager, or that analyst, is for them to have a look outside of their boxes. If we educate each them only about their craft, and later on confine them in their box, then we should not be that much surprised with those kinds of problems arising which we usually describe regarding the aplicability of systems analysis.
The same goes for
- a politician
- an economist
- a military
- a public relations
and irrespective of how advanced we may be in our understanding of
- technology
- science
- religion
- philosophy
and so on.
So, if you ever get unconfortable when someone finds some way of telling you
Just stay in your box.
you’re on the right track to figure out some new, unexpected and useful insights about otherwise ordinary affairs. And hopefully before you get unconfortable with the results of all that good effort.
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Image: from the movie Ex Machina by Alex Garland.
This article was originaly posted on LinkedIn at March 20, 2019.
Compliments of the Author 