Dennis Deery

Since the creation of the modern company, we have become used to identifying workers as individual contributors or as managers of people. Individual contributors needed only follow the orders of a leader, who would ensure that all workers contributed to the same, hopefully effective, goal. While factories tried to deconstruct work activities into simple, easily-repeatable tasks that left no room for individual variations and ideas. It’s fair to say that many managers have tried to accomplish the same breakdown in office work, asking individual contributors to simply do their tasks and not be overly involved in thinking about the overall goal.

Change is constant – we all deal with it, we all complain about it. We all do it. In a 2008 study titled “The Enterprise of the Future”, IBM surveyed over 1,000 CEOs around the world. 83% of those surveyed said they expect their organization to undergo substantial change. **But only 61% of those executives believe they have managed change successfully in the past. ** Why the disconnect? If change is so constant, why are we so bad at it?

Do you ever have trouble getting your living room temperature just right? It gets cold outside, so you bump the heat up. Whoops, too much, now you’re too hot. Down with the thermostat. Wait, now it’s freezing, turn up the heat! Cycle after cycle, until finally you get it dialed in just right. Now you can fire up the TV and binge-watch your favorite show. Congratulations, you understand systems thinking – that’s it in a nutshell.