Systems thinking pmrn by Corporate Research Forum

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes PRESENTERS: Dr Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge, Director, Quality & Equality Karen Ward, Programme Director, Corporate Research Forum These notes represent the flipchart output from some of the exercises from the two days. They have been reproduced as an aide memoire for your learning: WHAT WILL HELP US WORK SYSTEMATICALLY? 

Stay curious with wonder eyes

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Stay connected – practice interdependence learning behaviour

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Stay patient and chill – “all will come right at the end”

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Stretch your style – experiment on the go

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Be abundant in receiving and giving

WHY HR (OD) NEEDS TO UNDERTAND EXTERNAL SYSTEMS MAP? 

All systems think they are the centre of the universe

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All systems have a complex web of external system units

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All systems tend to choose to ignore (pretend as if they do not have impact on) external units

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All systems operate on “fantasy” vs “facts” of those outside system unit

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Most systems do not have a proactive way of working with external systems

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Most internal systems act as a powerful navy and can determine the way they work

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Most do not productively build systematic relationships

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Most knows very little of other parts

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Almost no one wants to do a favour to other units.

WHAT SYSTEMIC ISSUES DO YOU NEED TO EMBRACE OR CONSIDER WHEN DOING THE FOLLOWING TO BUILD SYSTEM INTERDEPENDENCIES? 1. RESOURCING & ON BOARDING -

Assessing for future potential

What sort of people we will need in the future?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes 

External environment vs. internal environment – where, who (demographics), when

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Create pull and push for the right people

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Strategic workforce planning – how meaningful is it? Are we really mapping our external reality?

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Attraction strategies  How honest are we?  Do leaders get it?  Do leaders represent what staff want for careers?

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Culture alignment to people we attract? (subculture & norms) – VOICE too big?

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How do we know what will keep people? Are our boundaries open & permeable in both directions?

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Do leaders know how to treat them? – How congruent are leaders to keeping people & supporting them?

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Screening/selection  How does it fit our environment internally?  What do we need to do to retain them?  What do we do well, where do we fail and why?

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Does the system really want something different

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Links to Development & Talent Management

2. DEVELOPMENT -

First line

Middle

Senior

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What does “good” look like?

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Is it ok to make mistakes? Can we seek feedback and learn? Or have we a ‘right first time’ culture?

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Skills/Capabilities for the future – strengths and vulnerabilities

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Who has ownership for development?

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Is there empowerment – the ability to be agile and learn to learn?

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Best practice ‘one size fits all’ vs personalised to individual needs?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes 

How is behaviour being recognised and rewarded?

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Must link to talent management outcomes/needs & strategic needs to align to current/future requirements

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Clarity of expectations – links to strategic aims

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Learning culture

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Sharing/learning real time

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Leader-led or inclusive feedback loop

3. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT 

Input Throughput Output  What is the feedback loop – individual ownership/capability? – the “how”  Flow of information? From whom to whom? For what outcome?  Frequency in conversations

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Open vs Closed – not wanted to discuss poor performance  Can be seen as a 6-9 monthly process/system… intention is cost.  Need negative entropy/event to reinvigorate – is it possible to re-invent without this?  What gets rewarded? Are we willing to discuss the unintended consequences when they arise or are we ‘wilfully blind’ to the outcomes?

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Are relationships strong enough for honesty? Psychological safety

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Interdependencies – perception of need to link performance management to reward or should we decouple it?  Between functions – how does performance contribute to the greater good? e.g. Sales to other parts of the organisation  Connecting own role to organisational challenges/organisational context  How you link to career pathways – individuals seeing what they need to do  Whole system?

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External – theory/practice – what’s the right approach and what works best?

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Interlink with talent management, performance management

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Does not sit in isolation

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What is the role of performance management in the organisation – how to focus on the overall objective and not just the activity?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes 

What is the outcome we want? Is it just about control or at least the illusion of control?

4. TALENT MANAGEMENT 

External perspective – this is often missing? We act as if we are a closed system operating in splendid isolation and are then surprised when we cannot get the people we need

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ITO  Tend to focus on input/throughput and not output  HR focus on throughput  Build of business driver

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Flow of talent across/through the system

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Open vs closed system when people believe they “own” talent

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Open vs closed elements of the talent process creates covert process and dents credibility

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Reliant on the system/ business to facilitate development opportunities

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Open v Closed – risk if we don’t tell people they are hi potentials or not

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Should there be talent management outside of performance management? Talent and PM directly link

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Evaluating how talent moves across system

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Why separate Talent & PM? What is the output of each process?

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System – what’s our optimal mix of talent

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Is talent management flawed because unconscious bias drives process/decisions?

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Does talent management promote diversity?

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Narrative in talent – very aggressive – “war for talent”, my talent, pools/boundaries, possessive view

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Tensions – short term performance vs long term organisational health

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Talent mobility across “silos” in organisation

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Little communication around talent – who, what, how?

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Overly focused on senior levels?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes 5. REWARD 

How is reward value created by diversity?

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If we move to a systemic or collective approach to e.g. problem solving, individual rewards don’t align – what is the output we want?

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Similarity – same reward schemes for very different outputs?

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Difference - what’s most helpful for different groups?

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How to maintain fairness across the whole system? By fairness we do not mean sameness

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Awareness of external norms in relation to retention and attraction

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Rewarded for working across boundaries that result in business success – what is the definition of “reward” - does system constrain it?

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An “element” (team) in the system rewards for favours delivered

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Being clear what “rewards” are and how they link to performance and behaviours

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How to create what is “fair” & “equitable” and not increase cost – what is the definition of fair and equitable in an organisation? Alignment with talent definition.

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Is there a systemic drive for sameness or differentiation?

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What behaviours do you want?

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Cultural alignment

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Reward is more than “Comp & Ben”  Non-monetary rewards  Psychological contract

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What are core principles to align across organisation – cultural/values

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Data insight – need evidence

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Autonomy for line manager to reward

6. ENGAGEMENT & EMPLOYEE RELATIONS 

“Experience” – the role of the line manager  Feedback  Trust, commitment, loyalty, empathy = forces a conversation

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Freeing up the “middle management” to really engage and connect

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Does everyone understand external context? Need a good clear purpose

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Are we clear on our output?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes 

To what extent do we want to be open (relationships & trust) or closed (identity)

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How tight are group boundaries?  How much do we embrace diversity?  Leader v front line?  Across directorates/divisions?

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Politics can limit people realising their potential. Is it possible to have the greater good of organisation and the individual in mind?

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Trust – is there a trend showing up in internal and external systems mapping? Look at trust and other intangibles in the system dynamics

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Holding on to irrelevant historical system questions purely for mapping trends – distorts the data gathered

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Local vs Global

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Communication and language

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Boundaries – closed and open environments

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What does the score look like?

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Do we do it just because we have to?

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How do we get away from the metric as the be all and end all?

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All others topics feed into this one

7. HR ANALYTICS/INSIGHTS/IS 

External lens v internal focus – enables a more open system

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Not just focusing on what is easily measurable and not over estimating existing content – is the data ‘clean’, accurate and relevant?

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We do the “what”, but not enough on “so what” and “what now”?

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Understanding the systemic patterns within the data – what does the organisation need to know?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes 8. OPERATIONS -

Shared service

Outsourcing

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Impact on customers (manager self service)

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Cultural impact/morale

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OD impact: roles and responsibilities within HR (CEO’s, BP’s, SS)

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Capability/Development impact

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Employee relations – redundancies & TUPE

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Entropy – risk to morale and business delivery. Proactive planning

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Outsourcing might appear to thicken the boarders if systems

9. ORGANISATION DESIGN -

M&A

Restructuring

Divestment

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Do we map the informal networks?

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Draw the systems map of all organisations involved – internal and external

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Most Organisation Design processes concentrates on throughput and forget about input & outputs – ITO must be considered to know what the Organisation Design is intended to deliver

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Pay attention to the human system dynamics

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Use in due diligence stage of M&A – once deal is done it is too late

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Ask ourselves: Where should we integrate or not? Where do we need loose/tight boundaries?

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Diversity on the design team is critical to consider all the system perspectives

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Clarity of output – M&A – what does success look like?

Systems Thinking – Post Meeting Review Notes SYSTEMIC QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN DOING ORGANISATION DESIGN 

Where are the Boundaries – interface between the component parts? A. Inside SSO B. Externally ( within organisation)

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External Analysis – purpose – why are we doing this?

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How open the boundaries between the organisation and the external world – what are the measures of interdependency, i.e. partnership?

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Connectivity – how we communicate (or not) impacts upon our success

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Steady state – does how we do things need to change? How do we know?

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Needs of the system must always trump KPI’s & SLA’s – where are high quality relationship interfaces required?