Word pro - flyer crisis syndrome recovery2p.lwp

Systems Thinking:
It’s more than you think.SM
How to escape the crisis syndrome?
add them to a list of pending candidate pro- What is systems thinking?
When individuals or organizations act to re- jects. This need not be unpleasant, if done lieve problem symptoms, but fail to address without blame using the ground rules for ef- fundamental solutions, it leads to The Crisis
… instead of by analyzing the parts.
Syndrome+: addiction to “the quick fix.
Behavioral Shaping
Impact of Dynamic Complexity
In fact, the approaches for organizations to We can reward abstinence & improvement escape an addictive cycle and transition from (structure in green). Organizations can learn a short-term to a long-term focus parallel to measure the real “health of the system” those thato help individuals. Figures 1 & 2 and not depend on feedback from symptoms.
show added structure to oppose individual pleasure.” “Addiction, A Whole New We can reward problem prevention based on and organizational addiction, respectively.
View,” Psychology Today, 10/94 Treat the System
Brief Intervention & motivational Interviewing
Modern addiction therapy uses family therapy (structure in Properly designed very brief treatment can be highly successful olive), treating the family unit is treated as a whole, not just the against even moderately severe addictions. To illustrate, a “identified” person. Similarly, for performance problems in or- “treatment group” got counseling & Antabuse and a “control ganizations, we must move from optimizing the parts to opti- group” got a brief self-help manual and was told to go home, mizing the whole, a major theme of systems thinking (see read it and do their best. The control group did just as well.
boxes: “What is systems thinking?” above & “Organizational Success & Handing out the manual motivated the control group, despite Failure” on reverse). We can evolve from “blame the person” to expectations it would not. “The addicts changed and moder- “blame the process” to “blame the system” to simply “eliminate ated their drinking. Simply giving them the manual, saying to blame,” it’s unproductive and activates defensiveness, a pow-erful barrier to learning.* tapering down
Aversion Therapy
"Warm
Behavioral
Turkey"
capacity for
Shaping
Visioning
gratification
reward abstinence
aspirations
The
& improvement
Quick
negative
appeal of
Fix
feedback S
Brief
lowering
Time for
"high"
Intervention
Another
Discipline
Aversion
Fix
Allows
The
treatment
Therapy
Waiting
Downhill
Things
Slide
Could Be
Worse
perceived
quality of
discipline
discipline
No Time for
to improve
Focus on
life skills
Fundamentals
spiritual
O Fundamentals
Discipline
awareness
prediction of
Begets
discomfort
Discipline
Preparation
discomfort
courage &
for Change
willingness
Behavioral
This Doesn't
to work to
self &
Shaping
Feel Natural
discipline
<reward abstinence
life skills
& improvement>
personality
Treat the
Motivational
therapy System
Transformational
Interviewing
Support
Psychology
"what's worked
are you willing to adopt
Groups
for you?"
new ways on trial basis? Experimentation
Intervention approaches for individuals that can help reverse the downward spiral of addiction.
+ see the paper The Crisis Syndrome * see Defensive Routines ** see Facilitating Group Action † see Exponential Improvement 2002 Continuous Improvement Associates
them that we believed they could help themselves, could Support Groups
handle it, you can do this, was enough.”# Motivational inter- Individuals seek out support groups (e.g., Alcoholics Anony- viewing is examining “what’s worked in the past” to encourage mous). This is one of the most powerful approaches. The more of it. Organizations can combine motivational interviewing group gives people support when they “backslide.” The theme and brief-intervention therapy, acronym FRAMES: of the 1997 Systems Thinking in Action™ Conference, “from
y Feedback - specific and tailored to the individual, not general learning organizations to learning communities,” reflects the or- y Responsibility - it’s up to you, you are not a helpless victim ganizational parallel. Peter Senge spoke of the purpose being y Advice - firm and clear recommendationsy Menu - there are different ways to work this out to provide continuing, mutual support to companies developing y Empathy - the best therapists are supportive and warm y Self-efficacy - “you can do it” … empowerment Visioning
Transformational Psychology
Time to examine envisioned future keeps targets high, leads to Research on abrupt personality change reveals instances setting higher targets, & opposes long term goal erosion.* where a transformed world view stopped addictive habits over- Experimentation & Preparation for Change
night (e.g., Malcolm X, AA co-founder Bill Wilson). Experimentation can encourage individuals and organizations Similar results have been observed in organizations, such as to “just try it” for a while and see if it works. Preparation for abrupt mental model shifts at Harley-Davidson.## They learned change provides forewarning of some discomfort; that very the new language of causal loop diagrams and their system warning may lessen the pain caused by change.
structure was explained in those terms. New mental models im-proved understanding; this allowed teams to recognize what Conclusion
was happening to them and change behaviors. The parallels between the problems individuals, organizations, “Warm turkey”
and societies face reveals the power of the structure of addic-tion. Organizations can examine their policies in the context of Tapering down and “relapse prevention” skills help individuals this structure and modify them to improve performance. cope with mistakes and set-backs . to not give up if they lowering the water
"Warm
organizational
Behavioral
Turkey"
Visioning
expediting delivery,
capacity for
Shaping
crisis & firefighting
gratification
envisioned
The
prevention
Quick
appeal of
firefighting
Brief
Fix
lowering
postmortem
Intervention
target eff
expedited Next
Discipline
Aversion
O Product
Allows
The
Therapy
Waiting
Things
Downhill
Slide
Could Be
Worse
perceived
prod/dist
discipline
prod/dist
organizational
tiveness
system effec-
to improve
No Time for
discipline
tiveness
tiveness
effectiveness
prod/dist
awareness
Focus on
Fundamentals
of principles
Fundamentals
Discipline
discomfort
Begets
quality of
unfamiliarity S
prod/dist Preparation
Discipline
strength of
Behavioral
This Doesn't
precesses for Change
org. courage
& policies
Shaping
Feel Natural
& willingness
Purpose &
to work to
Envisioned
<reward problem
prod/dist system
discipline
prevention>
processes &
policies
Treat the
Motivational
System
<examine
mental model
thinking
Interviewing
envisioned
Support
future>
tinually delayed to “fix” current de- foster willingness to
learning Groups
Transformational
try new practices
Experimentation
communities
Visioning
Psychology
Intervention approaches for organizations that can help reverse the downward spiral of addiction.
Organizational Success & Failure
… success and failure arises primarily from the internal policies and in- situation, rather than making it much more invulnerable. … you find cor- formation flows. There is a great tendency when there is some kind of porations that will go for decades in a certain mode like low profitability difficulty, problem or failure to blame it on the outside world, to blame it or high instability of employment where competitors in the same environ- on other people, but I would say that, almost always, the problem arises ment are not experiencing problems of that sort. It clearly has to be from the internal structure, the internal policies, even in situations where something that is internal and continuing in that organization … there are there’s a clear, unambiguous external cause. You look back into the or- systemic reasons for most of the important things that happen. Jay For- ganization and you find that it has policies that made it vulnerable to that rester, Power of Systems Thinking Conference, May 1995, Boston, MA Workshop Benefits
Beyond questions and insights described in The Crisis Syndrome and Escaping the Crisis Syndrome: y Examine different approaches to enhancing long term focus.
y Examine the effectiveness of organizational policies & rewards in terms of this Crisis Syndrome structure and the extent to which they encourage long-term focus.
y Examine barriers to changing policies & rewards and develop plans for change.
# “Addiction, A Whole New View,” Psychology Today, 10/94 ## Repenning & Kieffer, 1997 Power of Systems Thinking Conf. *See Service Quality Erosion 2002 Continuous Improvement Associates

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