intro to systems theory and leadership
Post on 19-Oct-2014
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This is a powerpoint I have used to introduce Living Systems Theory to people who have not been previously exposed.TRANSCRIPT
Global Context for 21st Century Leadership
Master of Arts in LeadershipSaint Mary’s College of California
October 25, 2009
Systems theory is a contemporary telling of an ancient and perennial story about the world as alive, dynamic and interrelated.
Indigenous world-view both ancient and contemporary.
Pre-modern Europe.
Counter-culture MovementsRomantic, Utopian, Arts and Crafts.
Now I a fourfold vision see,And a fourfold vision is given to me; ‘Tis fourfold in my supreme delightAnd threefold in soft Beulah’s nightAnd twofold always. May God us keepFrom Single vision & Newton’s Sleep.
~William Blake 1802
New and alternative paradigms of knowledge developed during the 20th Century.• New discoveries in the sciences• Technological advances in
telecommunication, computers, space exploration
• New developments in philosophy and psychology
• Introduction of eastern religions
Systems Theory emerged in response to the need to make sense of organized complexity in their natural contexts.
• Draws from concepts and metaphors of the life sciences.
• When applied to complex social systems fosters understanding in terms of:
– Wholeness– Relationships– Pattern– Processes– Context
Systems theory emerged as a scientific framework following the World War IILudwig Van Bertalanffy “General Systems Theory”
Norbert Wiener“Cybernetics”
Gregory Bateson“Steps to Ecology of Mind”
Influenced many academic disciplines, such as:
– Biology– Sociology – Economics – Organizational Theory– Management Sciences– And more.
“Lack of systemic wisdom is always punished”
~Gregory Bateson
Recently, Systems Theory has made inroads in leadership studies and practice.
• Wilfred Drath ~ “The Deep Blue Sea”
• Peter Senge ~ “The Fifth Discipline”
• Margaret Wheatley ~ “Leadership and the New Sciences”
• Nathan Harter ~ “Clearings in the Forest”
• All promote Systems Theory as a generative map for the kind of territory within which leadership practitioners live and act.
Map and Territory• What kind of map is systems
theory?
• What value does it have for the practice of leadership?
Map/Territory--Theory/Phenomena
Maps will render territory in very particular ways, obscuring some things while illuminating others.
What is the territory of Leadership in the 21st Century?
The Leadership Dynamic• Relationships • Complex social organizations• Dynamic change• Mutuality• Purposeful
“Leaders are part of a dynamic rather than being the dynamic itself. Leaders are one element of an interactive network that is far bigger than they.”
(Marion and Uhl-Bien, 2001, p. 26).
21st Century context of leadership ~ interdependent and turbulent world.
• Globalization.• Continual and technological change.• Social and cultural upheaval and
change.• Rapid rates of ecological decline.• Exponential knowledge gain.
Systems Theory as a Generative Map
• Orients us toward relationships, wholeness, pattern, complexity, change, interconnections, contexts, process, emergence, etc.
• Necessary in the dynamic, pluralistic, and interdependent world of the 21st century.
• Leadership within a systems view becomes a way of engaging and participating in the living world in service of its health and well-being.
A Living Systems View
Relocate human existence from outside to inside the living world.
Recognize social organizations as living systems embedded in a multiple contexts, which are dynamic, complex, and emergent.
Five Characteristics of Living Systems
• Provides lenses through which to view organizational life.
• Reveals new patterns.• Initiates inquiry leading to deepened
understanding and more skillful actions.
Five Characteristics of Living Systems
Organized wholesSelf-stabilizingSelf-creatingNested HierarchicallyPurposeful
Organized Whole • The difference between:
– a heap and a whole; – a collection of people and a family, an
organization, or a community; – a bunch of trees and a forest.
Organization– An arrangement of relations whose property
derive from interaction among the component parts.
Self-Stabilizing• Maintenance in response to
changes in the environment.• Negative feedback• Homeostasis
– Thermostat– Maintaining blood temperature
Self-creating• The capacity for innovation and
creativity in response to environmental stimuli.
• Positive Feedback--reinforcing vs. balancing
• Emergence• Adaptation
Nested Hierarchically• Means “Sacred Governance.”• Levels of complexity not of rank or
worth• Systems within Systems• Context
Purposeful• A systems “reason to be.” • Defines both identity and boundary• Property of the system• The “blueprint” • Mechanical versus living
Leadership in the 21st Century
Requires a new consciousness a way of viewing and thinking about the world as relational, dynamic and interdependent.
By applying this map to organizational life and
leadership it fosters understanding leading to more constructive activity in service of its purpose.