System thinking leaders are keenly aware of how actions in one part of their organization affects outcomes in other parts of the organization. Read Jeremiah 44:11-30.
The remnant of the Jewish people left in Judah after Babylon captured the fortified cities in Judah, including Jerusalem, felt they needed to flee from Judah to Egypt. Jeremiah clearly told them this was against God’s plan but they decided to go to Egypt anyway. When the Jewish exiles arrived in Egypt, they refused to stop worshiping idols. Ultimately, the practice of idolatry by the Jewish people further angered God and led to Egypt’s defeat by Babylon. The practice of idolatry and the fall of Egypt may seem like isolated events but they were intricately connected.
The systems thinking leader is constantly asking how the processes and actions of one part of an organization affect other parts of the organization. They draw out the lines from every decision determining to insure no adverse effects will be felt by other parts of the organization now or in the future. System thinking leaders are able to see relationships, patterns of change, the subtle interconnectedness of every part of the organization.
There is nothing mystical about system thinking. Leaders are not born with the ability to see interconnectedness and relationships of the affect of a decision. System thinking leaders develop the skill the same as they develop people skills or budgeting skills. System leaders have simply trained themselves to ask a couple of basic questions before moving forward on the decision. The following will help you start with the very basics:
- If systems questions aren’t natural, build them into the process of implementation; make systems questions the first step in building a timeline. Simply ask, “If we do this, what will it look like six months from now?”
- Another very simple technique is to use the pictorial organization chart as a visual reminder. With your team in the room point to the box identifying the different departments or divisions and ask the question, “If we move on this decision, will it have any affect, positive or negative, on these department/divisions?”
Ephesians 4:15-16 “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
The Last Call Devotions Network
