Systems Leadership

I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but my absolute favourite is that I’m ‘perspicacious’. Admittedly, I had no idea what this word actually meant when it was suggested to me, but when I googled it, I was like, “YES. FINALLY!”

Proud, I told my mum, who replied “doesn’t that mean something negative?”

Bums.

I quickly googled again …. “no, no, pretty sure it’s a good thing, honest”.

But I can see why it might be perceived as something negative.

We all know that I can be annoying.

But my perspicacity means that I pretty much always have my finger on the pulse guys.

Sorry, I can’t help it. I’m perspicacious.

And let me tell you that what is hot right now, and is going to get hotter …. behold…..

Welcome to …. SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP.

It’s been around for a while, I’ve been advocating it for aeons, but it feels like it’s now making waves.

I have been advocating for it for ages because when looking at the world of work the problems are nearly always because the organisation isn’t working together as a cohesive system.

Some typical observations:

Problems happen as work moves between teams.  Honestly, just map a process and mysterious delays happen when one piece of work leaves one team and moves to another. Sometimes this is because the organisation values team effectiveness as opposed to end-to-end effectiveness, so operations are optimised within a department but the delay pre and post departments are not ever visible, discussed, or worried about. Far too many organisations have no conception of end-to-end lead time and this is because often we don’t take the time and trouble to connect different teams’ work seamlessly together.

Problems can also occur when some departments are primarily concerned with delivering the core activities of the department rather than the needs of their customers or delivering the purpose that they are meant to fulfill within organisation. This leads to the department becoming isolated and disconnected from other parts of the organisation.  Engaging with these teams can feel a bit like a battle, where you feel like you have to beg the department to work with you to achieve what needs to be achieved.

Some teams are pushing, some teams are pulling, some teams are chill, some teams are motoring at a frightening rate, work is falling between the gaps, work is piling up between the gaps.  It’s a mess.  If you start to imagine the organisation as an ‘alive’ entity, it can feel like it’s writhing all over the place, uncomfortable, unrelenting and potentially in pain.

I think its helpful to think of organisations as alive organisms that act in surprising ways and can do shocking things. To think of them as beings that can become sick and unhealthy but that, with care and attention, can become happier, healthier entities that thrive. It was most pleasing to me when I saw that Werner and Le-Brun have released a book entitled “The Octopus Organisation” which challenges the comparison of an organisation to that of a “Machine” (The Machine that Changed the World anyone?!) instead they’d rather we think of successful organisations as the clever and adaptive octopus. Something that “thrives in complexity and embraces continuous change”. Something that is alive.

Indeed Systems Theory originated from the work of a biologist. We just have to think of the complexity of our own bodies as a myriad of systems within systems within interconnected systems. Each cell in our body is, in itself, a tiny system, cells come together to form an organ, say a lung, which is itself, a system, working within the respiratory system, that both energises, and is fuelled by, the circulatory system.

Organisations have loads of these complicated, interconnected system ‘human beings’ working within them.  Human beings who are not only comprised of the mechanics of their existence, but are full of the emotions and psychology that develop as a consequence.  Politics, histories, sadnesses, anxiety which can all manifest in that most gobsmacking of revelations within organisations – the phenomenon that is Defensive Organising.

Basically we’re talking INTENSE COMPLEXITY.

That’s what’s great about “Systems Leadership”. It doesn’t try to fight the complexity, it tries to unify through it … with a lightness of touch, an acceptance of the sprawling tensions, but has a laser focus on what brings the constituent parts together – the reason why the organism exists. It asks leaders to not cling to boundaries and walls, but to lead with impermanence, encouraging porosity, respecting first and foremost, purpose, not power.

This Systems Leadership Definition from the NHS guide to Developing-Systems-Leadership is useful:

“Leadership across organisational and geopolitical boundaries, beyond individual professional disciplines, within a range of organisational and stakeholder cultures, often without direct managerial control.”

Leadership that succeeds without direct managerial control and doesn’t care about organisational boundaries. It’s the antithesis of defensive organising.

This Gov.UK Systems Leadership Guide also provides an excellent overview.

I also, really like this CLEAR Framework for Leading Systems Change from Harvard Kennedy School’s  Lisa Dreier, David Nabarro and Jane Nelson within Systems Leadership for Sustainable Development. (It helps me greatly that there is so much alliteration and assonance).

Dreier, Nabarro and Nelson, 2019

When writing this, as per usual, I put on Spotify’s trusty and ever changing “Focus Instrumental Mix” where I’m delighted by beautiful piece of music after beautiful piece of music, none of which contain any singing, which would basically completely distract me and make me lose focus. I can just concentrate, write and vaguely feel the melodic feelings.  For a moment I pay more attention to a Bridgerton version of Paramore’s ‘All I Wanted’ by the Vitamin String Quartet. The beautiful ‘tos’ and ‘fros’ of the different parts of the orchestra, rise and fall, all with hugely different sounds, but together, when melodically working in harmony, the different parts complement each other and provide symbiotic moments of euphoria. That’s what Systems Leadership is seeking to achieve.  Organisation and organisations that work in beautiful harmony, and together, make wonderful music.