Vicious Cycles and Systems Thinking

It is easy to find individuals who are able to see 'Cause-&-Effect' relationships behind everyday problems: global warming being due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; 3rd World poverty fuelling global human trafficking syndicates in the First World. Sound familiar? From this perspective, once we get the cause out of the way, the effect gets solved. Right? No! Global issues, like those mentioned, often belie the vicious cycles that persist. It's a no-brainer that they don't get resolved!

People and organisations too, get caught in vicious cycles. Consider people we know who are stuck in bad relationships or life-crippling addictions to alcohol or gambling. For all intentions and purposes, they know these will do them no good to continue in them. Yet, they can't break out because they're in a vicious cycle. Because a vicious cycle in its downward spiral, gains its own momentum with each turn of the cycle, with each contributing cause blending into the other. Analytical Thinking helps us connect causes to their effects, but it does less well in resolving complex problems like vicious cycles. Why?

Systems Thinking, on the other hand, provides us with tools and applicable insights to transform vicious cycles into virtuous ones. It offers another perspective, apart from the usual analytical angle which is sometimes too linear for the good of those caught in the problem. It anticipates inertial & counter-change responses that frequently surface when the problem is tackled. It allows those attempting change to remain focused on the real issues. In particular, systems thinking provides a consideration of bi-directional relationships within the system:

• the inputs and outputs of the various factors involved (1 direction)
  
• the feedback loops (the other direction)
• the control mechanisms in the system and whether these are working and
  
• how the vicious cycle evolves as a result of the above 2 elements

An organisation I am helping is currently recognising that it is caught within a vicious cycle, where different units responded to organisational challenges in ways that worsened the perceived problem. You had swift departures of 2 CEOs within 3 years of each other, and then the loss of a key profit centre whose staff left with a Director to join another organisation in between the CEO departures. In response, existing profit centres took on the mission tasks of the unit, which by then was reduced to skeletal staff.

Over time, these tasks became part of the raison d'etre of those units. Now as the once-skeletal unit is ready to take on its old mission goals, these units have been wary of handing these back. From a purely analytical angle, the primary problem may be perceived to be due to the absence of leadership at the highest level. However, to determine it as the ONLY prominent factor may only be a portion of the full picture. Systems Thinking allows us to arrive at the following solutions for the organisation:

• Engage in Long-term Leadership Development at all levels

This has the aim of stemming the perennial problem of CEO & Director departures and the absence of able deputies. It also has the advantage of creating a common leadership vision and understanding of organisational concerns.

• Short- to Medium-term dialogue with existing profit centres to clarify their respective missions and their relationship to the organisational vision.

This move is to manage the 'ownership' issues viz-a-viz the once-skeletal unit, and also to build an understanding of interconnectedness between the units, which have been behaving as Silos for the longest time.

• Propose a series of Organisational Development and Diversity training workshops for key staff to begin to promote Systems Thinking and a Corporate Identity that was attached to CEOs, which when they left, became unhinged.
  

As seen, Systems Thinking provides incisive tools to paint a more accurate picture of the vicious cycle the organisation was in. More importantly, it helped identify steps and structures which promote an understanding of bi-directional relationships within the system.

We wish them well.

Noel Tan
Resident Philosopher
(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)
(Graphic Source: www.systems-thinking.org)