- Finding Solutions by Being Aware of the. - It is the task of the project manager to be aware of the larger environment in which her/his project is operat- ing. - One approach that helps the project manager achieve this insight is systems thinking.. - Systems thinking asks us to go beyond our reactive mindset and our knee-jerk reactions to life.. - In contrast to this event-driven behavior, systems thinking calls us to see the world as ”patterns of behavior over time”, using Peter Senge’s phrase 1 . - However, if we look at the structure of the pattern of behavior (read – the structure of the cycles we have just described) then we begin to see what creates the cycles that spawn the events. - And once we see at this level, says Senge, “we can take actions to change the structures that cause the cycles to happen.” 2 Attention at this level allows us to alter the source of the cycle rather than just deal with its symptoms, which are the events to which we normally respond.. - These structures of the patterns of behavior are called archetypes. - They are fundamental patterns of the way things work. - other companies then feel the success of the first company as a threat. - This assumption is never questioned, yet it is the true source of the problem, and the cause of the aggressive behavior.. - The above example of systems thinking demonstrates that these structures are not easy to see. - Therefore the first step toward developing a facility for systems thinking is to make these patterns visible. - One way is through the learning and use of methods that expose our own mental models, namely our own ways of seeing.. - Finding Solutions by Being Aware of the Way You Think. - Discovering Our Own Mental Models. - Discovering our own mental models, and therefore exposing our hidden assumptions, opens our minds to sys- tems thinking.. - When we enter the world of systems thinking through the door of mental modeling, we do what we tend to do in any new venture. - One of Pogo’s most famous cautions serves as a prime directive as we approach mental modeling, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”. - Mental models are themselves, hidden assumptions. - Furthermore, mental models are “in here”, not “out there.” Methinks I see Pogo waving his arm frantically, trying to caution us about where the problem lies. - Senge further explains, “The problem with mental models arise when the models are tacit – below the level of awareness. - In order to expose our own mental models we will examine several techniques that we can use to “lift the lid”. - on our own patterns of thinking, steering us away from the “unexamined life.”. - Senge found, in working with many corporations, that new ideas, initially successful in early tests, failed to be put into practice because they conflicted with “deeply held images of the way the world works.” 4 Mental models are powerful because they shape how we act. - The following are four techniques for opening the lid on our mental models. - Most of the other students steered away from him, since their overtures at inviting him into a conversation never seemed to get anywhere. - I asked him for his help in working through one of the concepts and assignments in physics with which I was having trouble. - Practicing this type of awareness in order to raise the level of our own behavior to a higher level of consciousness is a discipline.. - This process can only be stopped by raising our level of consciousness so that we can be aware what we are doing.. - Exposing the left-hand column. - Often in certain situations, where we anticipate danger or discomfort, we react in a way that is counter-pro- ductive to our improvement and to a positive resolution of the situation. - “Exposing the Left-Hand Column” is a technique that assists in raising our level of consciousness by revealing ways that we manipulate situations to keep from dealing with what we actively think and feel.. - We practice the ‘Left-hand column’ exercise in the following manner. - When we review the left hand column we discover the assumptions that we have made (they will be there, don’t worry!) It is these assumptions that govern the behavior described in the right-hand column.. - 5 The left column below is the thoughts in the mind of the Project Manager about Bill. - I have underlined the assumptions that the Project Manager is making. - To the extent that these assumptions, on the left hand column, are unrecognized they will remain untested. - The way to overcome this is to share the information in the left hand column with the person with whom you are in potential conflict. - You may find that the other person shares neither the data nor the view of the data that you have, but that is the beginning of true communication. - However, as one grows in a position of leadership, one faces more of the unknown, and the more complex the problems become. - Then simply have the leader inquire into the view of the per- son next to them. - Senge says again, “The goal of advocacy is to win the argument. - Truly practicing inquiry and advocacy means being willing to expose the limitations of your own thinking – the willingness to be wrong. - I recall a phrase, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot even hear what you say.” This captures a dispar- ity that lurks in all of us. - A method of seeing this gap is to examine your commitment to nature ”out loud” in the presence of others and truly invite their feedback on your behavior. - The eye, in the act of seeing, sees everything but itself.. - The practice will eventually lift the lid off of our own mental models. - we are the enemy after all! The paradox here is that when our defensive routines succeed in preventing immediate pain, they also prevent us from learning how to reduce what causes the pain in the first place.. - The tech- niques for exposing our own mental models that we have just examined are telling us that the first step in the solution to any problem is to examine ourselves.. - The road to systems thinking down which the practice of learning our own mental models takes us is not an easy road. - Auden, “We would rather be ruined than changed.”. - Although the perceptual and cognitive shift into systems thinking may be a struggle for some of us, to others it is a wonder. - Systems thinking becomes a liberating tool, like looking through a microscope for the first time. - Whether systems thinking initially presents itself to us as a trial or triumph, the support of other people proves very useful. - Teaming with others to accomplish this mental transformation that we have discussed is the topic for another paper.. - In the meantime, welcome to the road less traveled.. - He has extensive experience in IT project management, pre- dominantly in the telecommunications, aerospace, and outpatient health care fields. - Senge, Peter M., The Fifth Discipline – The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday, 1990, p
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