Systems Thinking Master Class

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Systems Thinking Master Class

• Professor Peter Kawalek - MBS
• Patrick Hoverstadt - Fractal

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Systems are about..
If we had to put it in one sentence, it would be
this Dont think of your organization as a
machine, think of it as a garden. From machine
-gt organism.
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Systems are about..

• Banks - uncontainable complexity, beyond the ken
  of the regulator a completely predictable
  disaster.
• Baby Peter - uncontainable complexity, beyond the
  ken of the busy social worker a completely
  predictable outcome?
• Baby Peter - the regulator isnt a regulator, it
  is a governor, meaning that the whole management
  structure is changed?
• Manchester the region - real change is not
  commissioned. It grows. Management role is to
  facilitate, to garden to fix problems that
  emerge.

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Systems are about..
Wholes
Managing Complexity
Not IT
Feedback Loops
Not Process

• Emergence

Creation of Purpose
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The Banks..
Wholes
Managing Complexity
Feedback Loops
Emergence
Creation of Purpose
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Delivering Services
Wholes
Managing Complexity
Feedback Loops
Emergence
Creation of Purpose
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Delivering Economic Development
Wholes
Managing Complexity
Feedback Loops
Emergence
Creation of Purpose
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AGMAMore or less.?

• More
• than the sum of its parts?
• Able to take strategic regional decisions
• Cost saving through shared services
• Better coordination between services and across
  areas
• Clearer decision making

• Less
• than the sum of its parts?
• Extra level of management
• Extra costs
• Slower decision making
• Confusion over responsibilities authority

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Systems are about..
Change Method e.g. Salford
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Change
Simplified Reporting and Accountability
People volunteer in or are selected
New organisational structure
Sufficient autonomy to change processes, to
adopt new IT, to grow a new culture
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ELEMENTS OF THE BUBBLE STRATEGY

• A simplified and controlled management structure
• (a recognised and patrolled boundary)

2. A broad, agreed mandate
3. Accountability
4. Sufficient Resources
5. Brand/Set of Symbols
6. A Joining Ritual
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Socio-technical Investigation..
SPRINT www.sprint.gov.uk