Systems Thinking for Business Leaders

A Two-Day Seminar

Too often business leaders find themselves playing management roulette…evaluating organization, technology or process changes without having great confidence that promised results can be achieved. Why do so many well-conceived programs fall short? Why do better improvement opportunities go unseen? Systems Thinking provides the answers.

Systems Thinking: The Key to Making Better Business Decisions

Imagine trying to move one strand in a spider’s web. It’s impossible to do so without impacting the entire structure. Your company is like that web. It is comprised of a business system that is much more complex than simple organization charts and process maps reveal. That’s why the true impact of tactical solutions like process reengineering, technology upgrades or policy changes is so hard to predict. The solutions to your organization’s most complex challenges cannot be one-dimensional. Simple solutions, while elegant, often fail to address key factors that later undermine business results. Systems analysis techniques are a natural extension of the process management techniques your leaders currently utilize. However systems thinking tools give you a greater understanding of the cause-and-effect cycles that:

1) Reveal the true root causes of problems
2) Foretell the real, big picture impact of tactical alternatives

Armed with the tools and knowledge to manage your business systemically, you will be able to evaluate current organizational performance, design a desired future state, enact systemic changes that have enduring impact and face ongoing business challenges more effectively.

What You Will Learn

Map your company’s business system
Evaluate data from feedback and feed forward loops
Determine the complex root causes of persistent business challenges
Determine if business solutions require process design or process deployment changes
Discover which challenges cannot be resolved by process and technology changes alone
Define a desired future state for your business system
Evaluate the impact of proposed improvement solutions
Discover the “hidden” causes of organizational resistance to change
Charter appropriate process, technology and policy improvement initiatives
Achieve sustainable high performance by establishing a more reliable business system

Seminar Outline

I. Complexity and Simple Solutions

Structure and behavior of dynamic systems
Organizational components and behaviors that create complexity in businesses
Solving problems in a complex environment
Understanding systemic constraints
Differentiating between the fire and the fuel
How to find root causes of business problems

III. Seeing The Big Picture

Moving from a tactical to systems approach
The Causal Loop Diagram
Identifying systemic problems
The System Map
Feedback and feed-forward loops
Measuring performance gaps
Identifying the need for process redesign vs. redeployment

IV. Defining the “To Be” Business System

Tools for modeling dynamic business systems
Understanding common design flaws
The State Change chart
Understanding the changes required to achieve “To Be” performance
Alternative system models and archetypes

V. System Solutions

Creating strategic solutions
Chartering improvement activities
Integrating a systems management approach

Who Should Attend

Manager or Executive responsible for making strategic decisions
Process Owner or Manager
An Executive, Manager or Director who needs to leverage innovation to meet organizational objectives
Chief Information Officer
Change Management Leader
Member of a strategic planning team
Leader of a BPM, process improvement or innovation team