The Power of Diagnosing the System
During my sophomore year of high school, I took a class in ecology. From scrutinizing the microscopic cell structure of a maple leaf to examining the crystallized patterns that made up a snowflake, each day brought a new opportunity to discover a world that eluded the casual observation of the human eye – a world that was complex, intricate, and yet perfectly aligned to support the creation of life.
For our final class project, we were tasked with creating an aquaponics system using the bottom of lettuce heads and live goldfish. In theory, the idea of an aquaponics system is simple: you feed the fish, which in turn produces biological waste. Bacteria in the water converts the ammonia from the waste into rich, nutrient-filled water that can support the life of the plants.
However, this seemingly simple task is no small feat. For the fish and plants to survive, each element of the system must be in perfect alignment. Too many fish? The bacteria in the tank can’t convert ammonia into the nutrient-rich water the plants need to live. Too few fish? The PH levels in the water will be too acidic to support plant life, causing the fruits of your labor to wilt. A singular misalignment is enough to bring the entire system to its knees.
The Importance of Understanding Systemic Issues
As our class quickly discovered, mere speculation and conjecture do not translate into successful performance. After numerous shriveled lettuce heads and the unfortunate demise of twenty goldfish, our teacher intervened to alleviate everyone’s frustration and suffering. Our attempts at quick fixes, such as adding more water, purchasing additional fish, and introducing fertilizer, proved futile. The panic induced by more fish and plants dying made us hasty in our decision-making and caused us to neglect the true underlying issue: overfeeding the fish resulted in excessive waste, leading to harmful levels of ammonia that, in turn, elevated the pH levels to an alkaline state unsuitable for sustaining life. The failure to account for all extraneous variables caused the ecosystem we created to crumble.
Just as the success of an aquaponics system hinges on the delicate balance of fish, bacteria, and plants, the effectiveness of an organizational system relies on understanding and aligning the cultural, structural, and human relationships within it. Thus, the practice of diagnosing the system is a leadership behavior we can use to determine what systemic elements are causing the organization or our team pain or disconnects. Once we understand the root cause of the underlying challenge, we can use our observations to design an intervention that addresses all variables at play.
Why Does it Matter?
As philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius once said, “Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.” When we fail to properly diagnose the system, we lack the comprehensive understanding of what is truly going on beneath the surface. This ostensibly small oversight leads to misinformed decisions and ill-fitted solutions, for if we don’t understand all that is contributing to the problem, how can we achieve a successful outcome?
Approaches to Diagnosing the System
Over the years, Cambridge Leadership Associates has worked with a range of high-performing teams across various industries in helping diagnose and tackle adaptive challenges. However, our work is not in outright solving the challenge, but rather enabling the teams to see the challenge in a different light. The only people who can “solve” an adaptive challenge are the ones who have a stake in it. We have found that when the adaptive challenge is close to the heart, it becomes harder to recognize factors outside of our sightline that are contributing to it. CLA’s role is in helping high-performance teams effectively “diagnose the system” so they can see the extraneous factors contributing to the problem at hand and partnering with organizations to implement behavior-based solutions.
To learn more about CLA’s adaptive consulting approach, click here.