Once again Joey Chan's post on the above, and response
from others, inspire me to write my thought as follow in
the structural thinking formal or object coding to be
deposited in Internet Knowledge database, Outsights http://www.outsights.com.
Any further comments and critiques are most welcome.
Goal: Should System Thinking be applied only to large
system with much complexity?
Goal: How to convince my partner to use System Thinking?
Fact: System Thinking
Fact: Learning Organization
Fact: Mental Model
Fact: Shared Vision
Fact: Team Learning
Fact: Personal Mastery
Symptom: I live in Hong Kong, and have been interested in Senge's 5th
Discipline for years, especially systems thinking.
Symptom: I and my partners started lecturing the basics of System Thinking.
Symptom: I try to use the tool to analysis consumer trends for clients.
Symptom: My partner, Ray, said that he do not believe in the helpfulness of
System Thinking, as it is only a tool of know-why, but not a tool for
creation and know-how
Symptom: My partner is of the view that since the effectiveness of System
Thinking is to deal with the uncertainties from the many many interactions
of the systems' parts, it is better to apply ST to multinational companies
instead of the small/medium size companies
Symptom: About 90% of companies in Hong Kong are in the category of small
and medium.
Symptom: Since the complexity of management, operations in most of the Hong
Kong companies are quite low level, they do not require System Thinking to
handle, or help them to get an insight either.
Symptom: We only need a more clear or 'advanced' 'logical thinking', not
System Thinking.
Symptom: System Thinking in fact is something about every day's walk, so
everybody have that in mind(intuitively, instinctively) already, and there
is no need to teach them about those 'trivial facts'.
Symptom: I disagree with my partner's views.
Symptom: What is the best way to enroll my partner to the same line of
thinking.
Cause: Differences in opinions and approaches
Cause: The principles of Learning Organization not well understood by all
parties concerned.
Cause: No discipline in the application of System thinking in the
interaction between partners.
Fix: It is clear that both partners have different opinions and approaches,
or different [Mental Model] operating, resulting in no [Shared Vision]. Both
use "logical thinking" heavily, although one partner imagines he is a
believer in System Thinking, which is only Theory in Mind, but not Theory
in Practice, leading to no [Team Learning]. [Personal Mastery], if there
is any, is only individually, not collectively.
Fix: A suggestion from other to use a real case of customer satisfaction on
use of System Thinking to convince the partner, is again the use of
"logical thinking". If "A" is satisfied, so should "B".
Fix: The person who professes to be a believer in System Thinking, may like to
re-examine his own [mental model] e.g.
- Discipline of System Thinking, in association with other disciplines, need
not and should not be applied outside "self". The problem (or the application
of the disciplines) is not out there but in us. Need not be in the
multi-national, or small companies, but could start with self-practice.
- A system consists of only two "components" may seem too simple to use
System Thinking discipline. In reality, these two "components" are the
two partners, who have no [Shared Vision], [Team Learning] etc. etc.
It is, after all, not that simple.