An open-minded inquiry
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| Who’s going to clean up this mess? Everyone! |
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To understand the plant’s systems, Deb
arranged to meet with the plant manager. To his
surprise, Deb never mentioned
systems thinking
or one of her methodologies. Instead she questioned
him as to what problems and threats he
thought the plant and business were facing, and
what goals and aspirations he envisioned for the
plant to re-establish itself as a company leader.
Over the next several weeks, Deb used the same
line of questioning with operational, functional,
and union leaders across the plant.
These interviews revealed how leaders coped
with manufacturing issues, and their explanations
for the decline in safety performance. With an
inquisitive questioning style and showing genuine
curiosity, Deb began to formulate the messes
the plant manager and his staff were managing
through the development of a
Systems Analysis,
Obstruction Analysis, and
“Telling the Story” –
Mess Presentation.
Working with a small cross-functional team,
Deb undertook the creation of a
Systems Analysis,
which detailed the current state of the plant and its
environment, how the plant operates, who is affected
and how they are affected — without making any
value judgments.2,3 Once completed, Deb visited with
everyone she originally interviewed and others to
validate her team’s depiction of the “current state of
the plant and its environment.” As throughout this process,
she avoided any reference to “systems.” During
these interactions she asked if any other issues needed
to be included in the current state description.
Deb and her team then undertook creating an
Obstruction Analysis, which involved describing
the characteristics or properties of the organization
that prevent its progress toward achieving its goals
or its resistance to change.4 Typical obstructions
include discrepancies and conflicts.
Discrepancies are differences
between what an organization
believes about itself and what actually
is the case. Conflicts occur
when progress toward one objective
produces retrogression toward
the others. Conflicting desires can
exist within individuals or the organization,
or between them.5 Again, Deb revisited
with those she interviewed to share the
Obstruction
Analysis, without referring to it by name, to gain
consensus on her team’s work and to seek out any
new issue that could lead to obstructing progress.
Once Deb and her team had an accurate understanding
of the current state
of the plant operations and the
discrepancies and conflicts the
plant’s management needed to
address, the team synthesized
the information into themes that
were depicted in a diagram of
the
Mess.
Picture worth a thousand words
The illustration depicted the differences associated
with managers who emphasized safety as a priority
and those who emphasized work as a priority. With
this simulation of the
Mess, Deb arranged a meeting
with the plant’s managers. She was able to tell a
believable story of the crisis the plant will face
if it fails to learn from its own experiences and
adapt to environmental changes.6 In this case,
“environmental changes” equate to the business
environment. Deb was able to create a desire for
change among the staff members. And she made
sure that the story did not assess blame or make
people defensive.7
The illustration of the
Mess was shared with
the plant’s employees to give them the opportunity
to voice their opinions, provide input, and
become active participants in the changes that
were needed. The employees’ growing lack of
trust in management began a turn for the better.
So, instead of selling systems thinking, be a
systems thinker. Don’t spend valuable time promoting
your tools or methodologies. Focus your
attention on the goals and aspirations of those in
decision-making positions. By satisfying their
needs, you just might find their willingness to
follow your approach to achieving their goals.
Finally, the use of mess formulation allows you
to discover the patterns of interconnectedness
that are taking place in the organization’s environment
and will lead you during the overall
change process.
