Spot Patterns to Find the System

Systems thinking helps us to see the interconnectedness in life. It allows us to see more than the superficial, news-story, right-in-front-of-our-face view. It provides more understanding. It clues us in to what is going on. It gives us more to life.

I always think about the old story about the village experiencing an elephant for the first time. Each member of the village is blindfolded and then taken into a tent. The tent contains an elephant.

Each member can touch one aspect of the elephant. The first touches the ears. The next, the tail. The third touches a leg. The next touches the side of the great animal.

Then they all get together to discuss their shared experience. The first says the elephant is like a flimsy, round, thin circle. The second says an elephant is like a snake. The third says they both are wrong and it is like a tree trunk. The next one says it is like a wall.

Who was right? All were right. Who was wrong? All were wrong. Why?

In life, complexity confuses things. Because of the great complexity of the full system, we tend to focus on an aspect of the system and then try to make the full system about that small part.

Systems thinking wants to piece the information together to understand the full system. Then we can see that most people are right AND wrong. They are right about certain parts of the system but wrong about others. They don’t get that the full system is much more complex.

But how do we avoid parts thinking and get to systems thinking? The best approach is to learn how to spot patterns. Patterns are important in life. They clue us in to larger, unseen systems.

Years ago I worked for a Fortune 1000 company. I was tasked with leading one of the digital asset teams.

With one specific team, we met every week. But each week we felt disappointed with their progress. It seemed like the meetings were tense. Everyone was defensive.

Every week it seemed to be the same. The strange thing is that I had several meetings with these individuals and none of the other meetings had this negative tone.

So, I recommended we change the meeting time. Instead of meeting early Monday morning each week, I pushed it to Thursday afternoons.

The change was immediate. Instead a negative tone, they had a light but focused tone. Each week it seemed like more was getting done. The quality of the meeting improved but so did the quality of the work.

When I brought this up to several coworkers, they insisted that it was coincidence. They said that the meeting time change had no impact and I was mistaken.

But this doesn’t seem so far-fetched when we look at research. One research study looked at parole judges. They wanted to see if there was any correlation between the outcome of the hearing and the time of the hearing.

In The One Thing – The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, the author mentions this study. He says, “In the mornings and after each break, parolees’ chances for being released peak at 65 percent, and then plunge to near zero by the end of each period.”

In other words, the time of the hearing was a major factor as to whether or not a parolee was released. This is incredible.

But when we start to spot these types of patterns, we can see larger systems. On Monday morning most employees are trying to get back to the norm. They aren’t functioning at an effective and efficient mode yet.

By moving the meeting, I found that the whole tone of the meeting changed. The group was a creative team. When are most creative people at their best? It certainly isn’t first thing on a Monday morning.

Spotting patterns clues us in to larger systems at play. Then we can make decisions to create optimal outcomes. If something as simple as changing a meeting time improves the quality of the work, why avoid it?

That time is a leverage point in the larger system. By changing that one point, the whole system shifts. It allows us to see the full system and then improve that system.

Look for patterns in your life to clue you in to larger systems. They will show you what is important in the system. Then you can identify leverage points to create effective systems in your own life.