Seeing Systems

Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life

Barry Oshry

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781609944209
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Comportamento organizzativo
• Index: Business

When breakdowns occur in organizational life, the tendency is to blame them on the personalities, motivations, and abilities of the individuals involved or on the specific characteristics of one's organization. Barry Oshry demonstrates how everyday breakdowns stem from our failure to see how human systems shape our feelings about ourselves and our relationships with other individuals and groups. He shows how we can transform "system blindness" into system sight, enabling us to live and work together in productive partnership. Based on Oshry's 30+ years of studying human interaction in social system life, Seeing Systems is profound in its implications while being easily accessible. In addition to illustrative cases and solid systems theory, the book is populated with pinballs; talking body parts; mysterious "swimmers"; amebocytes, slugs, and earthworms; dances of blind reflex; and tunnels of limited options. The result is a unique foundation for revolutionizing our understanding of system life.This new edition is revised throughout and features an extensive new section on having the wisdom and courage to face and work with the reality of uncertainty, a hopeful antidote to today's righteous battles of certainty versus certainty. The new epilogue describes how Oshry is currently using theater, blogs, and podcasts to extend his multipronged revolution aimed at transforming system blindness into system sight.

SEEING PATTERNS OF PROCESS
Act III

For the most part, we human beings do not see the larger system processes of which we are a part. We see individuals within the system, but we do not see “It”—the whole, the system, the family, the team, the business partnership. We do not see “Its” processes as “It” engages with “Its” environment.

In Act Three we will explore the consequences of that blindness. Our focus will be on peer group relationships—on the interactions among Tops, among Middles, and among Bottoms. We will treat each of these groups as a system within the larger system of the organization. We shall see how each of these systems blindly and reflexively falls into dysfunctional patterns of interaction: Turf Warfare among the Tops; Alienation among the Middles; GroupThink among the Bottoms.

We also will see how, in our blindness to system processes, we tend to politicize these processes—valuing some and disvaluing others. And we will explore the consequences of such politicization.

Our language is of the organization, but the phenomena we will describe extend far beyond the realm of the organization. For example, we will find striking parallels between the experiences of Top Executive teams and those of parent couples, between Middle Manager peer groups and suburban neighbors, between embattled Worker groups and embattled urban neighborhoods, ethnic groups, and nations. Familiar dances—unproductive and destructive—unfold reflexively and without awareness or choice with great regularity. Dancing in the dark.

Once again, we will explore the possibility of transforming system life from warfare to partnership as we move from blind reflex to enlightened choice.

But not without the sound of the old dances shaking.

Scene 1 describes the consequences of process blindness.

Scene 2 deals with the transformation of process blindness into process sight.

Scene 3 the politics of system processes

Scene 4 the challenge of robust systems

Scene 1
Process Blindness

36 Are You Sure You Have It All?

He: Are you sure you have it all?

She: I’m sure.

He: But I gave you so much information. It can’t all be covered by that one little check mark.

She: It’s all covered.

He: Well, what about that inside information about our Top Executives, about all the crazy mixed messages we were getting from the top? And how about that so-called “amicable breakup” at the top over so-called “philosophical differences.” That’s special, no?

She: (She looks bored.)

He: Well, what about the Top who took early retirement because of “a long-delayed passion for fly-fishing”?

She: (No response.)

He: And the “coffee episode”? That tied us up for weeks. Some units had coffee machines in their areas, others didn’t. The hearings we held on the coffee committees.

She: (She chews the eraser but does not write.)

He: And that led to all those other issues about unfairness: different salary and bonus treatment . . . the infighting that broke out among our Middle Managers . . .

She: (Nods her head but still doesn’t lift the pencil.)

He: And the business about the Workers: How they used to be a team, but now half the group doesn’t talk to the other half . . .

She: (stifling a yawn) It’s all covered.

He: I don’t get it.

She: You will.

He: It’s all part of the dance?

She: That’s it.

37 Turf Warfare, Alienation, and
GroupThink: The Dance of Blind Reflex
Continued

Executive Summary

1. Top group members become territorial and fall into turf battles with one another.
2. Middle group members become alienated from and competitive with one another; they never become a group.
3. Bottom group members become a cohesive entity, and they fall into pressuring one another into conformity or GroupThink.
4. When relationships among group members break down, the explanations are tied to the personal characteristics of the individuals involved.
5. And since the explanations are personal, so are the “solutions”: fix, fire, rotate, avoid, separate (“divorce”), control or avoid being controlled, therapize one party or both or all of them.
6. But the fundamental issues keep coming back, because . . .

He: Much that seems personal is not personal.

She: Exactly.

Tops Fall into Turf Battles

The Basic Turf pattern:

• Although Tops are collectively responsible for the whole system, they divide responsibility among themselves.
• Each Top becomes increasingly responsible for and knowledgeable about his or her own territory and decreasingly responsible for and knowledgeable about the territory of others and the whole.
• Tops become more concerned with what is good for their area than for the needs of the system as a whole.
• Instead of being in partnership with one another, Tops feel they need to protect themselves from one another.

Common symptoms of Top Turf issues:

• Lack of support. Tops feel unsupported by one another. They feel the need to protect themselves against unwanted incursions into their territory.
• Status/importance differences. Some areas of responsibility are considered more important to the operation than others. There are the more important Tops and the less important Tops.
• Resentment. Some Tops feel that other Tops are not carrying their fair share of the load.
• Control battles. There are struggles over the direction the system as a whole should take: Do we grow quickly or gradually? What is our orientation to our employees (or children)? Are we democratic? Autocratic? Laissez-faire? Do we diversify or stick to our core business? Do we take financial risks or play it conservatively?
• Relationship breakdowns. Relationships that began with promise deteriorate. Partners end up not talking to each other, or the relationship ends in separation, “divorce,” reorganization. (These promising new reorganizations often end up falling into the same DBR pattern.)
• System consequences. Tops send out conflicting messages, causing confusion throughout the system; there is limited cooperation across system lines, with the loss of potential synergies; redundant resources pile up in their separate stovepipes. All of this results in increased internal competition and decreased external competition.

He: That’s quite a costly dance.

She: Isn’t it, though?

Middle Group Members Become Alienated from One Another

The Basic Alienation pattern:

• Middle groups are nongroups. There is no sense of “We,” no common mission or purpose.
• Middles feel isolated from one another. Even when together (for example, in staff meetings), it is as if their energies are drawn away from one another.
• If you ask Middles what group they are part of, they are more likely to mention the groups they service or manage rather than their own peer group.

Common symptoms of Middle alienation:

• Unique. Middles feel unique, like they have little in common with one another.
• Competition. Middles are especially sensitive to how they are doing in relationship to one another. Am I better than others? Worse than others? Better off? Worse off?
• Evaluation. Middles are quick to make judgments about one another, and these judgments are generally based on surface characteristics: how the others dress; how they wear their hair; their physical characteristics, gender, skin color; how they speak; whether they are too emotional or too rational, and so on.
• No collectiv...