March 2013 - Systems Thinking with Me as the System
by Susan Myhre Hayes on 02/28/13
Systems Thinking
with Me as the System
I recently had the opportunity to hear David Peter Stroh speak at a
philanthropy conference. His topic - Systems Thinking: Help Your Giving Create Greater Change – called
on philanthropists to consider the broad and long range consequences of their
grants. He cited a World Health
Organization grant that was intended to kill mosquitos that were causing
disease in Africa but instead inadvertently disrupted an ecosystem. Unanticipated consequences resulted by not
looking at the whole system.
It is said that if your tool is a hammer, everything starts looking like
a nail. Similarly, since I wrote the book, Peace
in the Puzzle: Becoming Your Intended Self, everything – including systems
thinking – seems to fit into the idea of intentional change and
self-transformation.
Systems thinking is an approach
to problem solving with each problem viewed as a part of an overall
system. A systems approach thinks about
how individual parts of the system interact with other parts of the
system. Examining as many of these interactions
as possible can inform what parts can be changed to impact the whole in a way we desire with a minimum of
unintended consequences. Think machine and which levels move which parts
and then what happens to the whole machine.
Think cyclical rather than linear cause and effect.
My system - aka me - wanted to write a book. My problem was that I wanted to write a book,
and, while I felt I was intended to do so, I never finished. I started many
books but never completed them, and I could never understand why. Looking backward, unconsciously I took a
systems approach to my life in order to complete the book.
Using several tools, I discovered
that three parts of my system were preventing me from completing. Each of them interacted with the others
exacerbating their impact. Each stemmed from an underlying behavior or belief
that kept me from completing my book.
Here are the interconnected parts
of my system that I changed and the underlying behavior or belief associated
with them:
1. I stopped drinking alcohol. I had gotten into the habit of
having wine each evening. With a full time job, I needed to write for my book in
the evening, and a few glasses of wine each night prevented me from doing
that. Once I stopped drinking, I was
able to get in a few good writing hours each night. I changed the behavior and my system began to
change but not enough.
2. Once I started writing each night, I
realized that I believed I couldn’t afford to write the book. So, I started
tracking my income and out go on a spreadsheet each month, and by so doing, I got my finances under control. If I was going to have the money needed to
publish and promote my book, I needed to understand what money I had. Once I understood my financial situation, I
was able to finish the book with the confidence that I would be able to manage
it financially. Once I was writing with
the confidence that I could afford publishing the book, I realized my focus was
frequently on others.
3. Early in my life, I had taken on the role
of coordinator of the universe and believed that others needed me to help with
them to succeed. So, I decided to let others coordinate their own universe by no longer having expectations of others. By focusing on the perceived needs of others
and my perceived ability to fix them, I ensured that I would never have time
for my writing. They were always
potential distractions from my work. Once I let each person in my life make
their own way, I was able to make my own.
I am happy to report that I
finished and published my book within a year of making these systems changes.
Have a goal you aren’t meeting in your life? Consider thinking of yourself as a system and ask what parts of your system are preventing you for meeting your fullest potential at work and home. Find the levers in your system that will create what you really care about.
