Systems thinking in the UK

["John Constantine" <thesfg1@cox.net>]

Vic Forte "The problem for people in organisations is that systems thinking
seems to demand infinite altruism." 

Well, perhaps the problem of people in organizations is multi-faceted, one
of psychological makeup, education, upbringing, life experience, training,
economic resources, legal standing, health status, information availability,
religious conviction, etc., etc., etc.

Judging by appearances...it might seem that people would be required to be
altruistic. But appearances are often misleading, and perhaps not proof of
anything. This might be a case of one's "framing" the system and because of
the frame, looking thorough the glass darkly, and missing the light.

Such things as boundaries help the framing, not the understanding. Those
within the system are "doing the best they can", and cannot see the
boundaries of the system they are in. That remains for others to do. People
get hung up within the system all the time; that's what makes for
sub-optimization.

Has anyone yet seen the holy grail of optimization? If variation is to be
thought of as a "law" someday, perhaps no one ever shall. Maybe that is just
the point. There is always more to do, if one wishes to do it, and allows
for the fact that they just changed the very system they are trying to
improve. Location and dispersion, location and dispersion, and on and on...

"So is it not the case that systems thinking may mislead people and create
false expectations?"

Well, what expectations does systems thinking create? And who is being
misled? Surely not the systems thinkers. I read and view (through my own
frame) Deming as a very practical person. As he grew, he changed. His
approach is elegant and simple at the same time. Was he misled? Did he
mislead? Are expectations necessarily false?

Deming's practicality comes through in many forms, such as the Four Day, and
in many works. I have found great utility in reading and re-reading
STATISTICAL ADJUSTMENT OF DATA and SOME THEORY OF SAMPLING, not to mention
OOTC and TNE. 

In the first, Deming simply outlines why what looks to be rational and
reasonable (a number of measurements which seem to reflect a downward trend)
is not so, but rather something else entirely (students getting better at
taking a test, respondents learning how to more quickly answer questions,
etc.).

In the second (Theory of Sampling), Deming states the obvious...what an
administrator wants and needs is the answer "...what do I do?" Practical
solutions inside the system...where does he get them? Not from mistaken
underlings, surely? 

How many of those in the present circumstances of the working world are now
being misled by bad information, bad leadership, bad education, all in the
name of "the right thing to do". How many of those would benefit by systems
thinking and systems thinkers. No need to mislead is there? One price of
misleading is variation. Another is disappointment and mistrust. Deming was
very practical. He didn't mislead.


________________
John Constantine
thesfg1@cox.net
Phoenix, AZ