Navigating Complexities

By now, it must be plainly apparent that the difficulty arising from a large digital innovation or transformation initiative lies in the interconnected nature of the dimensions, elements and considerations and that these interactions produce circular loops that require many trade-offs.

Systems thinking is the last point in the repertoire of behaviours and competences needed to be a transformational leader who can spark innovation. Systems thinking is an approach to understanding interconnected systems, or in this case, dimensions and elements and how they interact with each other. It falls on the leader to recognise the requirement for a systems approach and take responsibility for it as the chief orchestrator and integrator of the programme.

Systems thinking is difficult, as you need to consider the circular interaction and causation of multiple components. Linear thinking dominates in business, and there is a role for it because to be successful at dealing with complexity, you must be good at both linear and systems thinking.

To start on the right path, you need to both break things into their component pieces but also look at how the components across your entire initiative interact with one another, and thus the trade-offs you need to make, as optimising one consideration often leads to a non-optimal state for another consideration.

You will need to focus on both process and content. You will have to understand the root cause and not fixate on the symptoms of the problem. If you can focus on these key items, you will start well. Your comfort with ambiguity, and not succumbing to the need to solve problems too quickly or too slowly, is one of the keys to success.

Read more on page 298 of Driving Digital Transformation.