188 Leading with NLP
Principles of Systems Thinking
- Look at the relationships between the parts as well as the
parts themselves. A system works as well as the parts work
together. - Treat boundaries as horizons. What is over the other
side? - Look to the long term as well as the short term. There
are delays in a system and the effect may come some
time after the cause. - Look at the details and the big picture, and how the two
relate. - Think in circles – how the effect of one action can be the
cause of another. Systems work through feedback – the
results of your actions coming back to you to determine
your next action. - The structure of the system determines what happens.
Change the structure and you will change the result. - When you want to make a change, think about what
stops the change from happening. It is usually better to
remove the barriers to change so it can happen naturally
than push it through in a proactive way. - Small changes can produce large results if you find the
right place to make the change. - Look for side-effects. When you make a change in a
system everything else will not stay the same. - The best may be the enemy of the good enough.
- Pressure appears in the weakest part, not the part that is
to blame. - Take as many perspectives as possible to understand the
system.
blame and responsibility
Blame comes from straight-line cause-effect thinking cou-
pled with a confusion between intention and result. Leaders
take and give responsibility, not blame. Responsibility means
the ability to respond. Blame is tempting but leads nowhere. It