Systems Thinking as a Way to Build a Successful System

This subsection concludes the substantive analysis of systems thinking concepts, so here we will bring together everything covered in the previous sections. It is especially important to understand how a team uses the 3x3 Table in project activities.

As you already know, this table draws the team's attention to the most important aspects that need to be considered in project work.

The table is built on the connection between the areas of interest of the three main systems and the three main roles. Each cell of the 3x3 Table brings together different subjects of interest for different systems, lists roles and methods, and provides examples of work artifacts (documentation) that should be developed during the process of working on the system of interest.

When working on the system of interest, it is necessary to keep in mind and consider several system levels and creation chains. You might be working with "our system," which could be a subsystem of the system of interest or of the system-creator. Or, within your activities, it may be necessary not only to create or develop the system of interest, but also to implement organizational changes within the organization.

There are many teams that create and develop successful systems (systems of interest and system-creators), but do not fully use a systems approach. The fact is, creating and developing systems ultimately comes down to executors/performers carrying out certain tasks with resources. These tasks do not necessarily have to be defined in a systems-oriented way. For example, they can be approached based on experience, trial and error, and so on. Moreover, if you have plenty of resources, you will create a successful system one way or another: you can always attract the best agents, buy the best tools, and test your hypotheses as many times as needed. That is why large companies and market leaders have a better chance of survival than smaller ones.

Systems thinking is one way to obtain the necessary work, but it is by no means the only one. However, applying systems thinking gives you a chance to outperform the leaders or increases the likelihood of creating successful systems in a shorter time and with a smaller budget. Of course, the probability is not 100%. Nevertheless, systems thinking techniques make it possible to obtain the necessary work based on systems modeling, as described in the 3x3 Table. It serves as a kind of checklist of what must not be forgotten during the process of creating and developing the system of interest.

We are not talking about a 100% probability of success, because, first, this checklist contains only hypotheses. For example, hypotheses about client dissatisfaction or a hypothesis about the system's architecture. Therefore, you will still need to run a cycle of hypothesis testing, and this applies to every cell of the 3x3 Table. Second, to create the corresponding work artifacts, you will need applied methods and professional executors/performers. Nevertheless, systems thinking provides fundamental clarity about where to start when faced with something new and complex.

In the end, systems thinking shows why certain work needs to be done, what is expected as a result, and sets the trend for subsequent actions. All of this reduces chaos in your mind and gives you confidence in your actions.