The SYSTEM Shift: An Introduction

Many organizational problems are expressed as familiar statements:

“Our turnover is too high.”

“People are not taking ownership.”

“Departments are not communicating.”

“We keep missing deadlines.”

“Our managers need more training.”

Organizational problems may first become visible through people, even when the conditions producing them may be structural. These statements usually describe the result without explaining how it is being produced. If our understanding of the problem is incomplete, we may address the visible symptoms while leaving the underlying conditions unchanged.

SYSTEM Shift™ is a performance diagnostic model I have been working on to help examine how an organization is producing its current results before deciding what to change.

It works through six stages:

State the Problem.

Make the current explanation explicit. What do we believe is happening, why do we believe it is happening, and what assumptions are we making?

Examine the Yield.

Separate our interpretation from the observable result. The yield is what an organization is currently producing in practice, whether or not it was intended.

Map the Structure.

Examine how roles, processes, decisions, information, incentives, resources, and feedback may be working together to produce that result.

Surface the Tensions.

Look for competing demands, constraints, misalignments, and tradeoffs that may make the current result a rational response to the organization’s conditions. These tensions may also reveal where the greatest opportunities for leverage exist.

Run an Experiment.

Rather than immediately committing to a large intervention, identify the smallest practical test most likely to improve performance or improve our understanding of the problem. We should also state what we expect to happen and what evidence would support or challenge our explanation.

Modify the Model.

Compare what we expected with what occurred, identify what we learned, and revise our explanation when the evidence suggests we should. That updated mental model then shapes the next decision.

In summary:

State the Problem. Examine the Yield. Map the Structure. Surface the Tensions. Run an Experiment. Modify the Model.

I am not claiming to have invented the underlying ideas. SYSTEM Shift™ is my attempt to organize established thinking from organizational diagnosis, systems thinking, experimentation, and organizational learning/behavior into a practical process.

To be clear, the model cannot promise certainty. Using this model could help us make our reasoning visible, separate what we observe from what we assume, and update our understanding before committing to a larger course of action.

I am continuing to develop and refine SYSTEM Shift™ as a way to improve the quality of organizational diagnosis. Before we ask people or organizations to change, we ought to understand not only what is happening, but why we believe it is happening and what evidence would cause us to think differently.