Interconnected Challenges from Far and Near

Here is a great article by  Mary Johnstone-Louis at Forbes.com about the importance of systems thinking for today’s leaders. In addition to sharing five useful practices that promote this thinking, she cautions, “Without systems thinking, interconnected challenges can overwhelm leaders and organizations, leading to reactive and ineffective responses, and even responses that perpetuate the problem.”

The article focuses on global systems, those external, often far-flung connections that certainly impact the organization. However, leaders would be wise to understand the complexity of internal organizational systems as well. That’s why systems thinking is one of the three guiding principles of the Optimized People Development Systems framework.

The way organizations find, train, and retain people influence all other organizational systems, making it one of the most (in my opinion THE most) important internal system for leaders to keep in view. When leaders see their people development system more holistically, they are better positioned to optimize it by improving connections, communication, data handling, and delivery of all people centered services.

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