Nov42011 systemsthinking nov1

Systems Thinking:
Improving & Promoting Library Value
An interactive presentation for librarians and information
professionals as part of the UCLA Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies Friday Forum Series
November 4, 2011 – 9:30am – 3:30pm

Sara Tompson, M.S.,
Los Angeles, CA (sarat@usc.edu)
Lorri Zipperer, M.A
Albuquerque, NM (Lorri@zpm1.com)

11/4/11 Zipperer & Tompson 1

Systems Thinking:
Part I – Getting Grounded
1. Introductions and Details of the Day
2. Systems Thinking (ST) is accessible!
3. Why Systems Thinking? (What’s in it for Me?)
4. Systems Thinking Core Concepts and Terminology
5. When Systems Thinking Tools are Especially Appropriate
6. Systems Thinking: New Paradigm for Library & Info Pros

Part II – Taking Off
1. Tools, Tricks and Tactics
2. Mental Models and Assumptions
3. Scenarios
4. Revisiting Value
5. Continue the Conversation


Systems Thinking – Getting Grounded
References for this Workshop
•Senge Peter M., et al. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies
and tools for building a learning organization. 1994.
•Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the
learning organization. 1990.
•Tompson, Sara R. and Lorri A. Zipperer. "Systems Thinking for
Success." Chapter 8 in Best Practices in Corporate Libraries.
Porter, Marjorie and Sigrid Kelsey, editors. Santa Barbara: Clio
Press, 2011, pp. 129-150. Excerpted in Google Books:
http://bit.ly/mQk5Jz
•Selected Readings handout
• More detailed bibliography:
http://units.sla.org/division/dbio/development/systems/webliogra
phy.html


Systems Thinking (ST) –
Getting Grounded
Introductions – Setting the
Groundwork
• Who / what / where
• One persistent challenge you
have for which you think systems
thinking solutions may be helpful
(Will use later)
• One thing you’d like to tell your
leadership you got from this class


ST Can be Confusing at First Glance….
Library Risk:
Faculty’s Escalation Librarian’s
Results Results
Keep
More
books Study Space

Decision-makers
get conflicting
messages
Influence Influence
Decision-makers Results Decision-makers
of A
Activity Relative to B Activity
by Faculty by Librarian
Diagram by Michael Moore;
used with permission

…but ST *is* Accessible –
Kids Get It!

Systems Thinking in Education: First Grade Problem
Solving Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWFDivyk7gI


Leverage Points
• A positive word for political and strategic
thinking and analysis
• A method of directing effort with effective action
• An understanding of how system behavior “over
time” can uncover leverage points and optimize
their use to drive sustained change
• Blame free approach to discussing what doesn’t
work to enable what COULD work


WIIFM – Sense of Urgency
“For every problem there is a solution that is
simple, neat – and wrong.”*
(various attributions: Twain/Mencken/Drucker)

• Illustrative stories: - e.g. Baker
MacKenzie Law Library**
• Fired all librarians / closed library
• Eventually brought program back
• “Fixes that Fail” Systems Thinking Archetype
*(Zemke, Ron. “Systems Thinking.” Training 38:2 (2001): 40-46
**News Fronts: USA. American Libraries 26:6 (Jun., 1995), p. 491


“Information problems are crucial to
understand why [disaster or crisis] signals are
often ignored.”*
o Signals are not seen – consistent with organizational
mental models/beliefs
o Groups have partial information…no one has a view of
the situation as a whole
Solution: A vigilant info culture – conversations &
reflections
*(Choo, Chun Wie. “Information Failures & Organizational Disasters.”
MIT Sloan Management Review 46:3 (2005): 8-10).

Systems thinking concepts can enable librarians
to better leverage their expertise and
experience for:
o Problem Identification and Mitigation
o Process-Improvement
o Strategic Planning
Demonstrating both their and their library’s
value to the parent organization/community.


WIIFM – Sense of Accomplishment

“Outside the box” creative strategies, and
ST tools can reveal less obvious problems,
factors and influences
To get to
systemic solutions that
Lead to….


WIIFM – Demonstration of Value

•Improved, articulated and visible alignment
with organization/clientele
• Wider recognition of library/ian skills
and resources by organization
(One must sustain the efforts begun with
the systems thinking!)


What is ST?
•Seeing the behavior and the interaction of the parts
within the context of the whole
•Building collective thinking for sustained change
•Learning from failure
•Working to dismantle the effects of silo-based
activity
•Understanding and respecting how humans can
affect the system
•Solving problems in non-linear fashion


Selected ST Core Concepts*
• Everything is connected to everything else
• You can never do just one thing
• Different people in the same structure will produce
similar results
• From “either/or” to “both/and”
• The easiest way out is the fastest way back in
• Profound changes can take place in ways we cannot
foretell

*(from Richard Wilkinson, “10 Useful Ideas on Systems Thinking” -
http://www.futurist.com/articles-archive/business-and-economics/10-useful-ideas-on-
systems-thinking/)


Linear vs. Systems Thinking
Linear Thinkers Systems Thinkers

Break things into component Are concerned with the whole
pieces
Are concerned with content Are concerned with process

Try and fix the symptoms Are concerned with the
underlying dynamics
Are concerned with assigning Try to identify patterns
blame

Based on: Ollhoff J, Walcheski M. “Making the jump to systems
thinking.” The Systems Thinker 17:5 (June/July 2006):9-11.


Linear vs. Systems Thinking,
continued

Linear Thinkers Systems Thinkers

Try to control chaos to create Try to find patterns amid the
order chaos
Care only about the content of Care about content but are more
communication attentive to interactions and
patterns of communications
Believe organizations are Believe organizations are
predicable and orderly unpredictable in a chaotic
environment


ST Includes…
• Watching for leverage points (remember the 1st
graders!)
•Recognizing feedback from the system to
mitigate failures and build upon successes
• Using tools that allow one to see interactions
between organizational entities such as
employees, departments and processes


Systems Thinking – Teens Get It!

http://www.youtube.com/user/movieclips#p/search/5/2lVRcI0
zsvw


When is ST Especially Useful?
• When problems are complex (vs. simple or
complicated)
• When problems reoccur
• When no one solution is obvious
• When problem fixes fail
• When a cause (proximate and/or
root) is not obvious

Examples from earlier today?

New Paradigm for Our Profession
• Systems thinking tools can help organizations
learn, and continue to learn
• Effective information pros promote learning –
for themselves, their patrons and their
organizations
o (A knowledge management connection too!)
• SLA Alignment survey (respondents included
management): 45% saw a culture of continuous
learning as being an important role for
information professionals


Systems thinking enables looking beyond the
library – NECESSARY for survival and success:
SLA’s CEO Janice Lachance said: “…people are not
viewed as indispensable based on the function
they perform but on the value they deliver--
specifically the clearly understood and essential
contributions they make to the success of their
organization.”*
*Janice Lachance, “What Bad Times Teach Us,” Information Outlook 13:8 (Dec-
Jan 2008/2009), p. 3)


• Zipperer and Sykes for SLA Biomedical and Life
Sciences Division
http://units.sla.org/division/dbio/development/syste
ms/index.html
• Project sought to:
o Support personal growth
o Collect data from colleagues
o Develop a web-based learning community on
the topic of systems
thinking for librarians


Systems Thinking Perspective Project, continued
Designed to stimulate reflection on:
• How we view ourselves in relation to our
organization
• How personal philosophies can enhance our
ability to contribute to the overarching goals
of the organization
• How work behaviors play a part in our
learning, growth and support of change

(Zipperer, Lorri & Sara Tompson. “(Cover Story) Systems Thinking: A
New Avenue for Involvement and Growth.” Information Outlook,
10:11 (2006):16-20)


Systems Thinking Perspective Project, continued

In general, respondents to the survey felt they had
already, or could, adopt some systems thinking
practices:
• Interconnectedness: (average 56% strongly agree)
• Partnership and Leverage (average 33% strongly
agree)
• Personal mastery: (average 43% strongly agree)
• Discussion and dialogue: (average 55% strongly
agree)


Exercise 1: Habits
• Each come up with a
library / info center /
librarian / info pro
example of one of
these habits
• Give an example of a
past action that may fit
the habit
• Share with group and
discuss
Waters Foundation. Systems Thinking in
Schools:
http://www.watersfoundation.org/index.cfm?
fuseaction=search.habits
© Waters Foundation, 2010.

CONTEMPLATE OVER LUNCH BREAK!
“We can listen to what the
system tells us, and discover
how its properties and our
values can work together to
bring forth something much
better than could ever be
produced by our will alone.
We can't control systems or
figure them out. But we can
dance with them.”

Donella Meadows, quoted by Vicky Shubert in the Leverage
Points Blog January 5, 2010 -
http://blog.pegasuscom.com/Leverage-Points-
Blog/bid/29392/No-Simple-Solutions “Footloose”!


Return from Lunch: “The 5 Whys” Tool
Illustrated

Discussed by systems thinker Mark Graben and linked at:
http://www.leanblog.org/2011/09/a-funny-whys-video/
(Also: http://youtu.be/U3w_eIa7Eq0 )


Systems Thinking – Taking Off:
Tools/Tactics/Tricks
• 5 Whys
• Recognizing Mental Models…
• and Assumptions
– Discussion of archetypes (as a tool)


Tools/Tactics/Tricks: 5 Whys
• Simple technique to try to ascertain the root
cause(s) of a problem
• Ask “why” several times to progress from
the symptom in order solve the underlying
problem
• Technique could be understood as a
progression of 5 Whys to 1 How

“For Want of a Nail” -- http://www.rhymes.org.uk/for_want_of_a_nail.htm


Tools/Tactics/Tricks: 5 Whys

(Graphic no longer
live online)

Systems Thinking – Taking Off: T/T/T:
5 Whys

Group Exercise:
•Persistent challenges from this morning
•Let’s apply a 5 Whys and see if we can get
to a root cause
•With systems problems
there is rarely only one
cause, but this technique
does help to dig deeper


Mental Models
“Mental Models” are:
– Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations or
even pictures that influence how we understand
the world and how we take action
– We are usually not aware of our mental models or
the effect they have on our behavior
• A Knowledge Management link – make the tacit explicit
– ST can help us “turn the mirror on ourselves” –
surface our internal pictures of the world and hold
them up to rigorous scrutiny


Archetypes
Archetypes = tool to recognize and possibly
avoid reoccurring problems and behaviors:
• Recognized descriptions lend credibility to the
message being shared
• Heads up to behaviors reasserting themselves –
librarian can bring value by nipping it in the bud/
recognizing early / proactive
• Reduces waste of time and resources through
early problem recognition
• A way to talk succinctly about a deeper problem


Archetypes -- Definitions

•“Underlying systemic patterns” [Marais et al. “Archetypes for
Organisational Safety,” Safety Science 44:7 (2006), pp. 562-582]

•“Recurring structures resulting from various
combinations of Reinforcing and Balancing structures
[Loops]”[Bellinger, Gene. “Archetypes: Interaction Structures of the
Universe” http://www.systems-thinking.org/arch/arch.htm]


Archetypes
Accidental Adversaries
•People who ought/want to partner instead end
up bitterly opposed
•Accidental Adversaries characterized by:
– Communication breakdown
– Competition over cooperation
– Short-term over long-term thinking
•Examples…


Archetypes
Fixes that Fail [or backfire]
•Useful short-term correction has unforeseen
long-term consequences (remember Footloose)
•Theme – Many decisions carry long- AND short-
term consequences (which can be diametrically
opposed)
•Reinforcing loop (first graders – mean
words/hurt feelings/mean words/hurt feelings,
etc.) – “vicious” not “virtuous” circle


Scenarios – Making it Real
Value of Scenarios -- Storytelling

Systems thinking can reveal unspoken values, mental
models and conflicts.
– Denning: ““The key to effective use of narrative for
communicating values lies in narratives that reveal how
the conflicts of values get resolved.”*

• Scenario I – Journals
• Scenario II – Shared Directory
* Denning, Stephen. “Effective storytelling: strategic business narrative techniques.”
Strategy & Leadership 34:1 (2006): 42-48.


Scenarios – Making it Real: I
An engineer complains to the Vice President that the online
journal collection is terrible. The VP has been hearing
this complaint, as well complaints about the library's
overuse of email, from a variety of people ever since she
joined the organization. The VP's husband is a librarian
and she has respect for the profession, but is
consistently being pressed by her budget office to close
down the library and rely on Google and support staff to
do the information work…..

Continued on handout


Scenarios – Making it Real: I
• Open brainstorming
• 5 Whys exploration


Scenarios – Making it Real: II
“That is it! A Shared Drive will fix everything!” The
librarian tries to hide his disbelief as once again
leadership at his company debate a technology-
centric strategy to address the ongoing spiral of
inefficiency and rework
employees at his 80-person
consulting firm wade through
to utilize their intellectual
capital….
Continued on handout


Scenarios – Making it Real: II
Small group brainstorming – 30 minutes
• What reoccurring problems are at play?
• What archetypes are evident?
• What mental models and assumptions are
present?
• What tactics can reveal them?
• What solutions are in the librarians “tool box”?
• What metrics can demonstrate strategic value to
embracing a different direction?


The Value of Systems Thinking:
V – Validates the role information can play in
organizational effectiveness
A – Assesses deep problems with a learning, blame
free orientation
L – Leverages strengths to address info needs and gaps
and enhance strengths organization-wide
U – Uses librarian knowledge effectively to innovate
and drive improvement
E – Elevates the role of the librarian as a strategist


Systems Thinking – Taking Off
Revisiting Value
Still true!
“The information professional provides
value by helping others. You assist in
decision making; you – the information
professional – make others more valuable.”*

* Matarazzo, James M. “The Value of the Information Professional.”
Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana. 10:3 (1989): 117-120.


Systems Thinking:
Continue the Conversation
• Ah Ha moments for you today?
• What will you tell your staff?
• What will you tell your peers?
• What will you tell your leadership?
• Share your “elevator speech” on the value
of systems thinking
• What did you learn today that makes you
want to dance?!


Celebrate Systems Thinking Success!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsNpfXwEy0


Systems Thinking:
Sara Tompson, M.S.,
Los Angeles, CA (sarat@usc.edu)
Lorri Zipperer, M.A
Albuquerque, NM (Lorri@zpm1.com)

THANK YOU UCLA EIS and
David Cappoli!


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