The Laws Of The Fifth Discipline

 Ever have a bump in you carpet?

 Sales are off. Why?
 Why are drug related crimes up?
 Solutions that merely shift problems to
another part of the system are often
undetected.
 Why?
 Those who “solve” the first problem are
different from those that inherit the new
problem.
 Ever read Orwell’s “Animal Farm”?
 The horse Boxer always had the same answer
to any difficulty
◦ I will work harder
 At first it’s inspirational
 Gradually this backfires in subtle ways
◦ The harder he worked, the more work there was to
do
 Managers will “use” and manipulate people
for personal gain
 This blinds others from seeing what’s
happening as well
 “Compensating Feedback”
◦ When well intentioned interventions bring
responses from the system that offset the
interventions
 The more effort you expend trying to improve
something, it seems the more effort is
required
 Such as?
◦ Low income housing
◦ Food aid overseas
◦ Marketing campaigns
◦ Smoking
◦ The “mama’s boy”
 So we push the system harder
 Glorifying the suffering of having to work so
hard
 Blinding ourselves to how we’re contributing
to the problem
 Compensating Feedback usually involves a
delay
◦ Time lag between short term benefit and long term
disbenefit
 “Political Decision Making”
◦ Counterproductive; not based on intrinsic merits of
alternative courses of actions
◦ Looking good
◦ Pleasing the boss
◦ Building your own power base
 The key word is????
 Eventually
◦ THIS is why systemic problems are so hard to
recognize
 Initial improvement
 Maybe the problem even disappears
 Months? Years? The problem will return, or a new one
will replace it
◦ And by this time someone new is in charge
◦ So here we go again…
 So there was this drunk…
 We find comfort applying familiar solutions to
problems
 Pushing harder on familiar solutions while the
fundamental problem persists, or worsens
 BFH
 “What we need here is a bigger hammer!”
syndrome
 Sometimes the familiar solution is not only
ineffective; it’s addictive and dangerous
 Alcoholism
◦ Simple social drinking used as a cure for low self esteem
or work stress
 The consequence is more and more of the
“solution” in non systemic solutions
 Think “Shifting The Burden”
◦ Government intervention programs
◦ Mama’s boys
◦ Ability to do math
◦ Writing
 In business we bring in “consultants”
◦ Over time the intervener's power grows, be it a
drug, alcohol, military budget over an economy
 Any long term solution must “strengthen the
ability of the system to shoulder it’s own
burdens”
 Instead of offloading HR issues to the HR
department, maybe you should….?
◦ Learn how to deal with people!
 Give me a “for instance”…
◦ The tortoise and the hare
 All systems have optimal rates of growth
◦ And it’s FAR less that ASAP!
◦ When growth becomes excessive…
 The system slows down
 These Systems Laws can become an excuse
for inaction!
 A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
 Don’t do “nothing”; Do something different.
Think of the System as a whole
 The “effect” is easily seen
◦ Drug abuse, unemployment, starving children,
falling orders, sagging profits
 The “cause” may not be anything close to the
effect!
If there’s a problem Fix:
with:
Manufacturing Line Manufacturing
Meeting Sales Sales Incentives or
Targets Promotions
Inadequate Housing Build More Houses
Inadequate Food Get More food
 In the Beer Game players eventually
discover the problem lies…
◦ Correct; within ourselves
 The first step is to let go of the notion that
cause and effect are close in time and
space.
- - But The Areas Of Highest Leverage Are
Often The Least Obvious
 Systems Thinking teaches us that… actually,
you tell me…
◦ The most obvious solutions don’t work. At best
they improve matters in the short run, only to make
things worse in the long run
◦ But there’s another side
- - But The Areas Of Highest Leverage Are
Often The Least Obvious
 Small well focused actions can sometime
produce significant improvements, IF they’re
in the right place.
 LEVERAGE
 The hard part is that high-leverage changes
are usually highly nonobvious
◦ Not close in time and space
- - But The Areas Of Highest Leverage Are
Often The Least Obvious
 What are trim tabs?
 Airplane flaps?
Very unobvious… yet EXTREMELY effective!

Think “structure” rather than “events”.

 Sometimes, the problem really isn’t
◦ It’s all in the view
 Better/quicker/cheaper… pick 2
 Basic improvements in work processes can…
 Remember the delay found in system results
and inputs?
 You CAN have each
 You have to wait for one to catch up while
you work on the other
 Initially, quality and costs may both go up
 But they will catch up to the system
 Anyone ever diet? Join a gym?
 Real “leverage” lies I seeing how to improve
both, or the overall SYSTEM, over time
 Does not produce two small elephants
 Three blind men approach an elephant…
◦ The first grabs an ear
◦ The second grabs the trunk
◦ The third a leg

The Principle Of The System Boundary

The interactions than must be examined are those
most important to the issue at hand. Regardless of
the organizational boundaries.
 Does not produce two small elephants
 Why is this principle difficult to practice in
organizations?
◦ Rigid internal divisions
◦ Leaving problems behind for someone else to clean
up
 Most companies, people, do divide the
elephant in half… The result is?
 Stop thinking of whom, or what, to blame
 There is no “outside”, no “someone else”
 You and the cause of your problems are part
of a single system
 The “cure” lies in the relationship with your
“enemy”
 Who’s the enemy?
◦ Not “you” in total, just our way of thinking