Why it helps

Because I love flow charts so much, I have a real knack for what we consultants call, “systems thinking.”

That’s the process of breaking down the work that you use or do into specific tangible parts. It is helpful because it lets us understand better the work that we're doing. If you can name something you can measure and manage it.

Importantly for us, it’s also a great way to become better at doing things you need to do.

A lot of the work that we do is vague and intangible, which makes it hard to talk about it improve on. When we do things by feeling and by gut we can't repeat them or point out exactly where things fell apart or succeed.

Systems thinking lets us improve and intentionally design the way that we do tasks by looking at the pieces more carefully. Applying a healthy dose of

Thinking in systems is not being a drone

Now, I know which you may be thinking. You might think that this sounds like over-structured office drone-like non-thinking. But I’m not big on that, either.

Our most creative work springs from our humanity. Insights come from being spontaneous and creative. Systems help us do those things even better.

This isn't about your having to work within a box. It's acknowledging that you are trying to do something specific and you can decide (carefully) how best to do them.

People like Charles Duhigg in his book “The Power of Habit” that you should not focus on goals, but rather on building habits in order to achieve desired results. This is essentially systems thinking. Building a robust set of habits is building a system. Your actions becomes repeatable, you can maintain them, and they lead to the results you want.

There are so many examples of success coming from the emulation systems that produce good results. Now that you have something that you want to achieve, you should design a system that you can follow and repeat until you have.

Use system thinking to design a process that will result in what you want.

Make the book write itself, please

Everybody wants to be a writer. Inspired by my favorite t-shirt.

Suppose I want to write a book (I do). What are the critical activities that result in my having written a book? I have to:

Research it so I know what I'm talking about
Structure in a way that makes sense
Draft it by writing a lot of words
Edit what I've written

Each one of those it's a discrete activity and I can break those into the phases of work. I know that they have to come in a certain order. I know that the activities that support each will be different, and will require different skills.

Break down the challenges and name the phases

What do I have to do to succeed in my authorial task?

I have to overcome some challenges for each of the activity. They will likely be different. In my case, I'm good at bringing myself to write the first draft. I'm bad at bringing myself to edit the first draft. I don't enjoy revisiting what I have already written and get frustrated upon reading my own words (and realizing how much I have to change). If this is the case then a fundamental part of my system should be overcoming that desire not to edit.

Solving specific problems

The system should address the complications and challenges that each phase presents. In this case my system could be to hire an editor to do that part of the work for me. Being honest that this is a necessary step and it is going to be difficult for me to do on my own helps me make progress.

Another critical “subsystem” tasks is writing the first draft of the copy. I can break down the components here: I need to write 50,000 words.

To do so I must write consistently. What are the obstacles to writing consistently? Distraction. Lack of time. Disinclination.

I must design the system to remove those distractions or challenges. By looking at relationships between tasks, their necessary outputs, and the challenges in each a more realistic picture of what needs to be done emerges.

Reverse engineer with goal in mind

I might find myself deciding how much could I write in a sitting. That's around 2,000 words (at most). If I can only write 2,000 words in a sitting, and I want to write within a month, that means I must write at least once a day.

If I want to write once a day and I realized that when I get home I'm too tired to write and I have to write in the morning. And so on and so on. The system takes shape.

When I combined all the components of this system I see the relationship between them. As I to execute each component I can see what is working and what's not.

Am I waking up first thing in the morning to write? If I am not, why is that? Then I have to redesign the system so it supports whatever changes I'm making. If I'm not waking up early enough to write in the morning, maybe I need to go to bed earlier. If I need to go to bed earlier, maybe I need to change my routine to support that…

Build something sustainable and improvable

The advantage of systems thinking is that it forces you to consider sustainability of what you're doing.

I could block off four days of my week and write non-stop in a creative bender and hope that I somehow finished my book in time.

This is not sustainable. The quality would not be there, not to mention that my family, friends, and colleagues would probably not appreciate this lifestyle choice.

Being intentional about what you do makes it easier to learn and adapt next time.

Systems thinking can begin with both an assessment of opportunities and challenges that factor into each task that you need to do in the outcome that is expected or required. Doing so helps you be mindful of everything that is related to the task at hand. Also, it helps you be a little bit more forgiving of yourself. If things aren't working out the way you intended, you can adjust the system so that it works. Ideally you can follow through with this system over time to maintain sustainability.

Become better at things by knowing what you’re doing and why

If you (like me) geek out over systems used by successful people, I think designing one for yourself will be a great exercise. It should reflect your specific challenges and help you identify the best way to solve them.

This does not mean you need to invent everything from the ground up.

The steps I would follow to build your system are:Start by designing the framework that shows each of the pieces of your system and how they play together.

Then identify the challenges within each.
Once you have the pieces broken down, seek out answers to the challenges by looking at other people's systems. This helps you find new answers you may not have considered.
At each step, ask the questions about necessary outcomes for that step, and possible challenges.
This may result in new phases or tasks… that’s ok. That’s how you map the relationships between what you’re doing (like my not going to bed early enough to write in the morning).

I love systems thinking for this reason. Building good systems helps you improve in any task. I'll be writing more on systems thinking in the blog, so be sure to stay tuned.[[subscribe form]]

What systems do you have to help you? Any tricks for building them? Share in the comments.