Four Things We Need to Know about What Systems Are and How They Work
Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
“Every system is exquisitely
designed to produce the results it
gets. If you want to change the
results, you have to change the
system.”
Paul Batalden, M.D.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
Complexity of Systems
❖ As we move among communities that are
experiencing [issues of climate, recruitment,
and retention of people of color], we
repeatedly confront people who know only
vaguely how complex organizational systems
operate.
Robert Terry, Authentic Leadership, p. 288.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
The Three Tiers
Stored personal data-known only to oneself
Individual &
Group
Behavior
Communication
Patterns
Affiliations
Relationships
Lea
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Sty rship
le
Interpersonal
“In
Out ” and
“
”G
roup
s
Policies and
Procedures
n
essio
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S
ices
t
c
a
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P
Organizational
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
rms
o
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Or
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Va izati
lue on
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Personal
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Or Im
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The Three Tiers, part 2
❖ For many of us one of the hopes that we carry
at the personal level, as we enter into a new
institution—a new system, is that this time we
will be able to bring our whole selves. We will
be able to use those parts that too often have
been marginalized at other institutions.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
The Three Tiers, part 2
!
❖ Thich Nhat Hanh’s concept of re-membering:
“In French they have the word recueillment to
describe the attitude of some one trying to be
himself, not to be dispersed, one member of the body
here, another there. One tries to recover, to be once
more in good shape, to become whole again.”
The Raft is Not the Shore
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
1. What Systems Are
❖ “A ‘system’ is something which must be
considered as a whole because each part bears
a relation of interdependence to every other
part.”
Grusky and Miller, p.68
The Sociology of Organizations, Second Edition
Oscar Grusky and George A. Miller, Eds. New York: Free Press, 1981.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
1. What Systems Are (Cont’d)
❖ In systems thinking, the “structure” is the
pattern of interrelationships among key
components of the system.
!
➢That might include the hierarchy and the process
flows, but it also includes attitudes and
perceptions, the quality of products, the ways in
which decisions are made, and hundreds of other
factors.
The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990. p. 90.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
Maintaining the Supremacy of Whiteness
Institution of Higher Education
Student Organizations
government, union, services
Hospital
ROTC
Sororities
& Fraternities
Research
Supervisors
Athletics
Housing
Halls, policies
Workers Union
Suppliers to University
Newspaper
Trustees
Admissions
Administration Deans
Development Office
Recruitment
Placement Office
Public Relations
Financial Aid
Investments
Parents
Endowment
Alumni
Banks
Curriculum
Professional Schools
Religious Activities
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
Faculty
Academic Council
2. Why we care about a systems perspective
❖ Understanding systems enables us to see
interrelationships rather than isolated things and
patterns of change rather than static “snapshots.”
Senge, p. 68
!
❖ The systems perspective shows us that there are
multiple levels of explanation in any complex
situation…In some sense all are equally “true.” But
their usefulness is quite different.
Senge, pp. 52-53
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
2. Why we care about a systems perspective (cont’d)
Systemic Structure (generative)
Patterns of Behavior (responsive)
Events (reactive)
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
2. A Systems Perspective (cont’d)
❖ Events explanations—“who did what to
whom”— doom their holders to a reactive
stance. Event explanations are the most
common in contemporary culture, and that is
exactly why reactive management prevails.
!
The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
2. A Systems Perspective (cont’d)
❖ The Cycle of Frustration demonstrates the
problem of focusing on what is happening in an
organization.
➢If this is your primary way of assessing an
institution, making substantive and long-lasting
changes will be extremely difficult because you will
miss the underlying patterns.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
2. A Systems Perspective (cont’d)
The Cycle of Frustration
Crisis
Dormancy
Problem
Recognition
Disappointment
Intervention
High
Expectations
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
2. A Systems Perspective (cont’d)
❖ Pattern-of-behavior explanations focus on
seeing longer-term trends and assessing their
implications. They begin to break the grip of
short-term reactiveness. At least they suggest
how, over a longer term, we can respond to
shifting trends.
!
The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
2. A Systems Perspective (cont’d)
❖ The third level of explanation, the
“structural” explanation, is the least
common and the most powerful. It focuses on
answering the questions, “What causes the
patterns of behavior? How can we plan for a
different outcome? It is at this level that
serious planning for organizational change
must begin.”
!
The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge, New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
3. How systems work. Only if we understand them
can we change them.
❖ The organization is more than a collection of
individuals, each motivated by sentiments
arising from her or his own personal and
private history and background.
❖ Senge reminds us that when placed in the
same system, people, however different, tend
to produce similar results.
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
3. How systems work. (cont’d)
❖ The systems perspective tells us that we must
look beyond individual mistakes or bad luck
and beyond personalities and events to
understand important problems.
➢We must look into the underlying structures
which shape individual actions and create the
conditions where types of events become likely.
Senge, pp. 42-43
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
4. How the conveyance of power and privilege are built
into an organization
❖ In order to be an effective change agent, one must
never underestimate the roles that the acquisition and
maintenance of power play in the behaviors of the
organization and individuals within it.
!
❖ The central phenomenon of organizations is the
mobilization of power for the attainment of the goals
of the organization. The value system legitimizes the
organization’s goal, but it is only through power that
its achievement can be made effective.
Grusky and Miller, p. 104
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.
REMEMBER…
!
❖ Every system is exquisitely designed to
produce the results it gets, and
!
❖ Very little in a system, if anything, is
accidental. (That’s the bad news AND the good
news…if we change the systems, we can make a
difference.)
© 2014, Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.