… is improvisational.
We may plan business strategy, process change and IT roadmaps, but we always need to adapt to contingencies and the knowledge that emerges from collaboration across work domains. This is why organizational change involves wicked problems. It requires a systemic thinker to synchronize transformation across multiple functions and organizational boundaries. Someone who can pull together multiple – often conflicting – perspectives, to create actionable insights.
Adaptive Thinking
Systemic analysis requires different skills than the bottom-line driven approaches to business change that we normally use. A systemic thinker must see the big picture, then prioritize areas for change. This requires a divide-and-conquer approach, that separates out (rather than conflating and confusing) the different purposes of the organizational system of human-activity.
The real problems with IT and business process design is that we have been suckered into thinking that – if only we get the program right – everything will work perfectly. It won’t. Stuff changes, in the business environment, in customer perceptions, and in what our competitors are offering. That is why, for example, the US is struggling so much with supply-chain management. Our systems are designed for everything to go right. We just don’t understand how to design systems that devolve decision-making to the people who can make sense of what is happening.
