{"id":2,"date":"2008-11-10T07:47:28","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T15:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sabusense.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2012-07-12T12:38:38","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T16:38:38","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Making Sense Through a Systemic Leadership and Management Lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them.
\nInstead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking<\/em>.”\u00a0 – Buckminster Fuller<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s never enough to tell people about some new insight. \u00a0<\/em>Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s heads, you need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so they can see the world in a new way.\u201d – \u00a0<\/em>John Seely Brown, Ex-Director of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WHAT A THINKING TOOL CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THINKING AND DOING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both Fuller and\u00a0Brown were\u00a0right in my case.\u00a0 I used this different lens as a tool for over a decade to understand what was happening in a major 140,000-student US school system continually responding to all the dynamic social and economic changes facing every urban school district.\u00a0 For me, it offered a different answer to “Why” they were happening and identified unseen possibilities for addressing them that could go to the core of the problem-causing conditions.<\/p>\n

Of most importance, it helped me understand why trying to make sense through the prism of the pyramid<\/em> continued to produce failed strategies for change.<\/p>\n

Four unique characteristics of the lens made it possible to “see” and “understand” the products evoked by of this “new way of thinking.”\u00a0 {These are presented in CATCHING THEM DOING SOMETHING RIGHT<\/a>\u2026)<\/p>\n

1. Made Relationship-“seeing” possible+<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a “system-seeing<\/em>” tool, this lens, in effect, serves as an organizational MRI scanner that sees through practices to the “simple” biological “rules” underlying them at the core level where knowledge<\/em> created by the brain’s pre-wired learning<\/em> process begins.<\/p>\n

It offers a way to understand, first, how everyone is biologically wired to “make a difference” \u2026and for those in education it’s with children<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Then, with that central purpose, to see how the universal brain<\/em>-driven need for information becomes the definer of relationships<\/strong> needed for exchanging it, and how these soon become the formal and informal organizational structures<\/strong> needed to sustain those working relationships among interdependent roles<\/strong> the system\u2019s work requires (regardless of the skills of those whose jobs<\/strong> place them in them.)<\/p>\n

Because it offers this different view of the tension between “jobs” and “roles” and how work roles in a system relate<\/em>, it can frame a shared<\/em> understanding<\/em> of relationships that can support collaborative actions<\/em> that weren’t perceived possible before.<\/p>\n

2. Portrayed the “work system” as an information-creation<\/em> and exchange process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The values of this perspective for strategic leadership and management in schooling are a function of this fundamental nature.\u00a0 Because it portrays the school district as a coherent, connected system of work<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It offered a simple, visual<\/em> way to strip away the different meanings of “system” that blur the targets of “systemic” reform, and the words that make it seem like the work of teaching<\/em>, managing<\/em> and leading<\/em> are based on “different” theories and processes.\u00a0 Instead it surfaces the same natural <\/em>action\/learning process that underlies them all.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is rooted in the core principles<\/em> of interaction<\/em> that actually drive children’s (and adult’s) learning, and makes it possible to focus the alignment of the system’s work to the level where engagement<\/em> is rooted in the interactions of experience.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It aligns everyone’s intrinsic need to understand the meaning of their job in terms of how, in the end, their role makes a difference<\/em> for individual children.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And because the “picture” it portrayed was coherent and systemically holistic, not only in scope, but also in depth, it offered a different way to see and connect the dots that create their interdependence.<\/p>\n

And for me, it offered a way to grasp the coherence and developmental nature of the systemic leadership<\/em> strategies that have been driving their work for the past ten years.<\/p>\n

3. Addressed “Learning” as a capacity, not a product<\/strong><\/p>\n

While it is not unique to focus on children’s learning<\/em> as the purpose for education, here, the learning that serves at the focusing center of this map is the process of learning<\/strong>, not its products<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It offers a “simple” structure to see through and address the complexities of current information-driven standards, testing, and accountability strategies that are based on learning-as-product<\/em>.\u00a0 When used, instead, as a means to portray and question education’s Theory-of-the-Business<\/em>,” its value comes from the core belief embedded in its structure: that “learning” (as a process) is an individual capacity<\/strong> (to be developed), not a product<\/em> (of that process) that seldom can be connected back to it..<\/p>\n

The system’s work then can be seen, understood and managed<\/strong> as the development of each child\u2019s learning<\/em> capacities<\/strong> through the types of interactions<\/em> it makes it possible for him\/her to be engaged in.<\/p>\n

4. Addressed the “Either\/Or” “learning disability”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe best sign of intelligence is the ability to hold good, but contradictory ideas in one’s head at the same time.
\nCharacter is to act on two good contradictory ideas.\u201d<\/strong> – James Champy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most surprising and challenging was that it exposed an inherent learning disability that creates the greatest barrier to the effectiveness of organizational leadership because it directly impacts the thinking of CEO\u2019s, superintendents and other system leaders.\u00a0 This is the system \u201cblindness\u201d caused by the age-old \u201cEither-Or<\/em>\u201d problem of how to see \u2013 and then deal with — the forest and the trees at the same time<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Without a way to address the “Both\/And<\/em>” condition of “complementarity,” as Quantum physicists term it, we often end up focusing our thoughts and resulting efforts on “fixing” people<\/em> or<\/strong> the system<\/em>, but not both at the same time.\u00a0 We haven’t believed it was possible and, except for those actually accountable for the success of an entire “system,” didn\u2019t need to think much about it.<\/p>\n

The system-view offered by the lens highlighted how the unique requirement of a system leader’s task – to impact a “whole” system \u2013 creates a need for ways to get both their mind<\/em> and<\/strong> hands<\/em> around it.\u00a0 System’s Thinking<\/em> and Strategic Planning<\/em> can meet the first need; but there have been few ways for them to influence the continual tactical<\/strong> thinking that underlies the system\u2019s daily work.<\/p>\n

But, as the District’s experience demonstrated, this is not only possible, but it may be the only<\/strong> pathway to sustained systemic change.\u00a0 At the “hands-on” level, the lens’ system view made it possible to connect-the-dots and “see” how the elements of their strategic improvement initiatives were coming together as a strategic management<\/em> process that could support the tactical problem-solving<\/em> needs at the varying levels of the district’s work.<\/p>\n

(See New Understanding: The Complementarity of Policy and Practice<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Some of the additional insights that emerged from this way of understanding their journey can be found at:<\/p>\n