Systems

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Please use the login form below, the portal automatically recognises from your login details what systems are enabled for your membership level. Please also allow time after you click the login button for the system to recognise your login details and membership level this might take up to one minute.

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Dynamic Organisational Behavioural Assessment Management System

Too often, Managers are only presented with information about what has happened in the past, something they can do nothing about – you can’t undo what has happened!!!

DOBAMS provides you with a unique, secure remote online behavioural assessment platform.

Behavioural based risk management, is a little known but an important aspect in business excellence dedicated to preventing unintended events from taking place.

This new type of risk management is future predictive not retrospectively auditing and correcting past incidents. It prevents potentially expensive human, business and brand reputation dangers from occurring.

Applications:

Health & Safety (all sectors)

Patient Healthcare

Financial Risk

Human Risk

Operational Risk

Communication & Data Risk


…and many more areas

How does DOBAMS work?

DOBAMS provides you with a secure online behavioural assessment platform that:

Translates tactical data into Management Information

Allows everyone affected to be involved, inside and outside the scope

Focuses on the impact of what people actually do and achieve

Provides confidence of what may happen

Benchmarks between groups of people and sites

Is easy to use, a proven intelligent assessment methodology, not the typical low value survey

“Make the invisible visible. Understand the true performance & risk picture before it’s too late”

“Stop auditing the past by ticking boxes. Start understanding the future”

What does DOBAMS do?

Analysis of unexpected events be they minor health & safety incidents or failures on the scale of BP’s Deep Horizon disaster, usually shows that indicators existed that could have been picked up and acted upon to stop the event from occurring. So why are these so seldom identified in advance? It’s rarely because people don’t care or are incompetent, but usually due to a combination of often subtle changes to people’s behaviour, leading to eventual performance failure.

DOBAMS has been developed to collect, analyse and understand these behavioural indicators. Through automatic analyse it identifies risks to the achievement of what counts:

Application of the Drivers of business performance

Organisational or system objectives

Meeting Governance and standard requirements

Achieving Desired outcomes

Identifying the risk of unintended outcomes

Delivering Process objectives

Application of Values and policies

Delivering Customer and stakeholder satisfaction

Creating effective Leadership

Providing a rich source of benchmarked data from which to drive Organisational and personal change.

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Dynamic Organisational Behavioural Assessment Management System

The following generic behavioural assessment products are currently available for use, and all can be tailored as needed with sufficient notice (please advise if required):

1	ISO9001 Quality Management System
		ISO9001 QMS High-level Review
			Covers the key requirements of ISO9001. Designed as a sense check for person setting up the system and the management team to take part. Reports against top-level Clauses. Can also report against 8 principles of ISO9000
		ISO9001 QMS Full assessment
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering all requirements of ISO9001. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against 8 principles of ISO9000
		ISO9001 Clause 5 Management Responsibility Assessment
			360 degree Assessment covering the requirement of Clause 5 in slightly more detail. Reports against all sub-clauses for this clause. Can also report against 8 principles of ISO9000
		ISO9001 Clause 6 Resource Management assessment
			360 degree Assessment covering the requirement of Clause 6 in slightly more detail. Reports against all sub-clauses for this clause. Can also report against 8 principles of ISO9000
		ISO9001 Clause 7 Product Realisation Assessment
			360 degree Assessment covering the requirement of Clause 7 in slightly more detail. Reports against all sub-clauses for this clause. Can also report against 8 principles of ISO9000
		ISO9001 Clause 8 Measurement, analysis & improvement Assessment
			360 degree Assessment covering the requirement of Clause 8 in slightly more detail. Reports against all sub-clauses for this clause. Can also report against 8 principles of ISO9000
2	ISO14001 Environmental Management System
		ISO14001 Environmental Management System High-level Review
			Covers the key requirements of ISO14001. Designed as a sense check for person setting up the system and the management team to take part. Reports against top-level Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
		ISO14001 Environmental Management System Full Assessment
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering all requirements of ISO14001. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against key business principles

3	BS EN 16001 Energy Management
		BS EN 16001 Energy Management Assessment
			Full Assessment covering all requirements of BS EN 16000 (soon to become basis of ISO50001). Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
4	OHSAS 18001 Health and Safety Management
		OHSAS 18001 Health and Safety Management High-level Review
			Covers the key requirements of OHSAS 18001. Designed as a sense check for person setting up the system and the management team to take part. Reports against top-level Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
		OHSAS 18001 Health & Safety Management Assessment
			Full Assessment covering all requirements of OHSAS 18001. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
5	ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service Management
		ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service Management Compliance Assessment
			Full Assessment covering all requirements of ISO/IEC 20000. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
6	ISO27001 Information Security Management
		ISO27001 Information Security Management System High-level Review
			Covers the key requirements of ISO27001. Designed as a sense check for person setting up the system and the management team to take part. Reports against top-level Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
7	ISO13485 Medical Devices Management System
		ISO13485 Medical Devices Management System Assessment
			Full Assessment covering all requirements of ISO13485. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
8	EFQM Business Excellence Model
		EFQM Business Excellence Model Assessment
			Full Assessment covering all criteria of EFQM. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Criteria. Can also report against key business principles
9	COSHH Management and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health
		Management and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
			Full Assessment covering all requirements of COSHH. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against all Clauses. Can also report against key business principles
10	Good Corporation Standard
		GoodCorporation Standard Section 5 – Environment
			360 degree Assessment covering the requirement of Section 5 in detail. Reports against all sub-clauses for this clause. Can also report against key business principles
11	Business Management System (Whole Business BMS)
		Business Management System Assessment
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key requirements of effective Business Management System (this is based on ISO9001, but does not mention it). Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key Business Management principles based on System Thinking
		Business Management System Self-Assessment
			A one-person self assessment. Allows them to review key elements of the Business Management System practices within their business and creates a maturity score and profile against the key drivers of effective Business Management, based on System Thinking. Also benchmarks their scores against others who have also taken the assessment.
12	Environmental Management System (embedded into the business)
		Environmental Management System Assessment
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key requirements of effective Environmental Management (this is based on ISO14001, but does not mention it). Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key Environmental and Business Management principles based on System Thinking
13	Energy/Carbon Management
		Energy/Carbon Management System High-level Review
			Covers the key requirements of effective Energy Carbon Management (based on ISO27001, but does not mention it). Designed as a sense check, for person setting up the system and the management team to take part. Reports against key Energy/Carbon and Business Management principles based on System Thinking
14	Information Security Management
		Information Security Management Self-Assessment
			A one-person self assessment. Allows them to review key elements of Information Security Management practices within their business and creates a maturity score and profile against the key drivers of effective Information Security. Also benchmarks their scores against others who have also taken the assessment.

15	Individual Business (Process) Assessments
		Understanding our business environment
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its Understanding of its business environment. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Understanding Stakeholder Needs
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its Understanding of stakeholder needs. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Business Planning
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its business planning. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Product Design & Development
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its product design and development. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Securing Business
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its Securing of business (Sales activity). Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Purchasing & Stock Management
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its purchasing and stock management. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Warehousing, Storage and Processing
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its warehousing, storage and (where appropriate) processing. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Monitoring Performance
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its monitoring of performance. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Analysing Performance
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its analysis of performance. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		(Continuous) Improvement
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its (continuous) improvement. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		People management
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of people. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		IT ‘infra-structure’ management
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of its IT infrastructure. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Managing Suppliers/Supply Chain
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of suppliers and/or supply chain. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Managing Infrastructure and Work Environment
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of its infrastructure and work environment. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Managing Quality and Safety
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of Quality and safety. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Managing Risk & Financial Management
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of risk and finance. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking
		Managing Customer Credit Management
			Full 360 degree Assessment covering key elements of the way the organisation carries out its management of customer credit. Designed for participation by everyone within the organisation. Reports against key drivers of performance in this business area based on System Thinking

16	Miscellaneous Assessments
		21st Century Auditor Skills Review
			A 360 degree assessment of the level to which required competencies have been displayed for a specific auditor or an audit team. Involves a range of people who interface with the auditor when carrying out their duties. Reports maturity against a range of defined auditor competencies
		Staff Satisfaction
			A generic assessment by which organisations can engage their staff to provide feedback on their satisfaction with their employment. Uses a mixture of behavioural indicators as well as perception, to report against the key drivers of staff satisfaction, benchmarks the various teams involved and the overall level of satisfaction.
		Manual Handling
			A 360 degree assessment on the way in which manual handling is carried out, either by a team or an individual. Reports against the key elements of safe manual handling.
		Employee Motivation Assessment
			A generic assessment by which organisations can engage their staff to provide feedback on their level of motivation. Uses a mixture of behavioural indicators as well as perception, to report against the key drivers of staff motivation, benchmarking the various teams involved and the overall level of satisfaction.
		Complaint Handling Self-Assessment
			A 360 degree assessment on the way in which complaints handling is carried out, either by a team or an individual. Reports against the key drivers of effective complaint handling management
		Restaurant/Bar management
			A 360 degree assessment on the way in which a restaurant and/or bar is operated. Reports against the key drivers of effective restaurant and/or bar management

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Business Model DNA is a physical process of analysing your current performance model and the exploring of new ideas.

The Business is considered by looking at:

Offering by considering the value proposition, the products and services a business offers Competitor analysis compares performance compared to competitors especially from the viewpoint of key customer segments.

Infrastructure by considering the key activities, those activities necessary to execute the business model; key resources, those necessary to create value for customers and partner network, the business alliances which complement other aspects of the business model.

Customers by considering the customer segments, which target audience for products and services; customer channels, how we deliver key products and services and customer relationships including customer relationship management.
Finances by considering the Businesses cost structure and the revenue streams required.

Content Flexibility

Business Model DNA can be used for any business model or new venture planning activity, including for example, looking at:

• new products
• new revenue streams
• new target  customer segments
• new business units
• partnerships and strategic alliances

The Business Model DNA is flexible being easily amended to model and refine options and test alternative scenarios.

The Business Model DNA allows for the generation of different business models; to test different hypothesis and their impacts across the business as well as a way to model the results once each option has been tested and measured.

Trusted Advisers

Business Model DNA is commonly used with the help of our trusted advisers who can independently help the team create and agree an initial plan and can subsequently offer strategic advice and insight as well as the tools to convert the model into a tactical plan and measure ROI and subsequent deployment and performance outcomes.

Business Model DNA Benefits

The key benefits of the Business Model DNA tool for any organisation can be summarised as follows.

Business Model DNA:

• Can be used as a focus for management & owners to address key strategic issues and challenges facing the business.
• Enables the creation of a robust strategy with minimum impact on time
• Allows the understandable  development and consideration of options for the business in terms of:

• o    products
• o    revenue streams
• o    customers
• o    business units
• o    partnerships and alliances

• Is a focus for ensuring the business will make best use of USP, competitive advantage and achieve its business goals.
• Is inclusive, interactive and visual so all can be involved in the whole design process.
• Allows people to see the impact of change in any one area, customer channels or areas such as key activities.
• Allows scenario planning in four critical areas:

• o    Customers
• o    Trends
• o    Competitors
• o    Macro Environmental

• Moves strategy from the boardroom  to the business and shapes the future.

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Dynamic Strategic & Tactical Mapping System – From Idea to Implementation

Unique processes to bind together the knowledge that is already in your organisation with relevant knowledge from elsewhere to address real problems and opportunities and improve your organisation’s performance. Getting your team together to develop a plan may seem like something to avoid but ultimately it is the only way to ensure success.

DST MAPP is a collaborative visual planning process that provides a simple and effective way to plan any business activity. Regularly used to develop top-level strategies, DST MAPP can also be applied to any multi-decision process where ownership of implementation is dispersed and hard to monitor.

The three main reasons that planning fails are:

1. Lack of commitment and buy-in

2. Poor communication

3. Insufficient tracking

DST MAPP addresses each of these issues directly, enabling planning teams to collaborate throughout the process using a common interface. DST MAPP explicitly links strategic planning to tactical implementation which reduces delivery risk.

DST MAPP is both a physical and a digital planning system. In its physical form DST MAPP allows a team to build a plan together around a table, allocating responsibility and agreeing key steps together. DST MAPP splits any planning activity down into its component parts, focuses the team on addressing each of the components in turn and then enables them to construct a new workable plan from only those components that are relevant to their situation.

With the new plan created, DST MAPP, in its digital form, provides the team with web-based access to an online version of the plan where each person can view the tasks allocated to them and update progress. Securely hosted on the web and accessible via a web browser, the team can all have access to the same plan at the same time from anywhere, facilitating better communication and ensuring accountability and transparency. The team manager can see at a glance what progress has been made and what areas of the plan need attention.

DST MAPP can be used for any planning activity with content drawn from a growing database of experience or can be created from scratch by the planning team. As the plan develops and conditions change, DST MAPP allows any new information or activities to be included in real-time, ensuring that all team members are aware of the changes and any new priorities.

DST MAPP provide a number of different levels of access enabling the various owners of the whole plan, each decision step and ultimately each task to have personalised views of their own activity and how that fits within the overall plan. Individual and overall planning progress is graphically displayed which clearly shows which steps are causing issues and which are moving ahead on schedule

DST MAPP is commonly used with the help of our trusted advisors who can independently help the team create and agree an initial plan and can subsequently monitor implementation of the plan through the web.

The key benefits of DST MAPP for an organisation can be summarised as below.

DST MAPP:

- Can be used as a focus for management & owners to address key issues in the business.

- Enables the creation of a robust strategy with minimum impact on time

- Is a focus for agreement on USP and goals as well as the strategy to move from one to the other

- Is interactive and visual so all can be involved in the process through communication

- Stops strategy staying in the boardroom – it follows the business out

- Enables management/owners to view progress on agreed strategy and identify issues before they become obstacles

- Enables advisors to track progress and to pre-empt/address key issues in advice sessions

- Enables implementers to track progress of whole organisation and celebrate success

- Provides rolling approach to strategy delivery so that it remains continuously live rather than historic and worthless

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Business Strategy Assessment – Strategic Winning Insights

Business strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or set of goals or objectives.

Strategy is management’s game plan for strengthening the performance of the enterprise. It states how business should be conducted to achieve the desired goals. Without a strategy management has no road-map to guide them.

Creating a business strategy is a core management function. It must be said that having a good strategy and executing the strategy well, does not guarantee success. Organisations can face unforeseen circumstances and adverse conditions through no fault of their own.

The strategy needs to be frequently reviewed against prevailing external and internal environment. This is where business intelligence comes in where you need to constantly monitor how the strategy and the objectives are being executed.

Some experts claim that a strategy should be designed to provide competitive advantage for the organisation.

Our Business Analysis Process provides a simple yet in-depth overview of an organisation. It consists of an on-line survey which should be completed by those people who know the most in the organisation. Statistical data analysis is carried out on the answers and provided in reports that are extremely visual and easy to understand.

The whole process is seamless, saves hours and in some cases days of gathering, sorting and analysing data. It is a perfect way to constantly assess, re-evaluate and make sustainable improvements for organisational excellence.

What Is It?

This diagnostic provides CEO’s with the perfect formula to assess their organisation against the Winning organisations of today. It is targeted at those people who know most about their organisation’s performance and provides them with accurate information about where to focus their resources for future success.

Using our unique style of reporting we enable you to accurately identify the “Opportunity Gaps” within your organisation, allowing you to quickly locate the areas that require specific attention to improve management, practices and performance.

Who Uses It?

It is used by CEO’s, Health Authorities, Government Bodies, Private and Public Sector Companies, Not-For-Profit Organisations, Senior Change Agents, Quality and Improvement Executives and Firms of Consultants.

It should be used to ascertain an organisation-wide analysis of performance and sustainability.

The diagnostic is based on research findings published in The First XI: Winning Organisations of Australia © and focuses on those things that Winning Organisations do well.

Background

Based on two major research projects completed between 2002 and 2007 it provides organisations, large and small, with the ability to take a complete look at their business, identify their “Opportunity Gaps” and implement structured plans to make improvements for sustainable and profitable success in the future.

The sole purpose of this diagnostic is to determine the most important issues faced by managers and leaders of winning organisations, being:

WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS FOR SUSTAINED ABOVE-AVERAGE PERFORMANCE IN A SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATION?

It measures and benchmarks organisations against nine dimensions that “Winning Organisations” do differently, compared with other organisations, with the results providing multi-level analysis, in each of the nine dimensions.

It can be run with multiple levels of management in numerous departments and offices around the world (in any language), with the results showing multidimensional comparisons.

The aim of the diagnostic is to enable your organisation to:

• Easily and quickly compare your practices (and optionally benchmark) your organisational performance to other organisations who have consistently performed above-average.
• Improve overall organisational sustainability and performance by targeting and focusing strategies and actions on key priority areas, as identified by the “Opportunity Gaps” in each of the nine dimensions of the framework plus topics specific to your organisation.
• Identify opportunities to improve your organisation’s performance, by focusing on the strategies and actions on key areas of importance, as identified through expert analysis of the quantitative and qualitative feedback from the diagnostic analysis.

Contact Us at Jasper for more details

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What is Enterprise Competence Based Management?

ETMS software enables you to bring effective Competency Based Management to all employees within the organisation, via job selection and assessment processes, career development and learning tools, performance management and career planning systems. Built around a common, competency architecture, this innovative system of Intranet / Internet enabled tools facilitates the strategic management of the employee life cycle, from recruitment to retirement.

The modules are designed to work with your existing Human Capital (HC) infrastructure. This allows you to evidence your return on investment through strategic competency-based management.

What Does the ECBM Do?

Change the competencies and the profiles are immediately updated. Changes to the profiles flow to the assessments and the interview guides. Competency matches are also updated. This greatly simplifies the management of your competency-based talent management system.

Competency Dictionary

ECBM Comprehensive Competency Dictionary, the flagship product, consists of 64 fully validated behavioral and functional competencies shown to be critical to organisational success. Five levels per competency and the ability to mix and match to suit your organisations needs yields millions of combinations to meet any requirement. Designed for a variety of large and small private and public sector organisations (10 to 30,000+ employee base), this dictionary has been developed from over 30 years of experience in the field of competency-based Human Capital Management. We can also design your own bespoke competencies.

Competency Profiles

The Competency Library enables you to view all the job profiles within the tool. The profiler displays all the skills, accountabilities and competencies attached to that profile, by proficiency level. Each proficiency level comes with a detailed list of the behavioral indicators that are required to function in that job.

Employee Profiles

Managers can see all of their employees’ assessments, learning plans and performance reviews from their home page. Employees can see their own plans and assessments as well as a complete list of their validated competencies.

Competency Assessments

This module allows the employee to self-assess against the competency profiles for his current job or future jobs within his / her desired career path. Similarly, managers can conduct employee assessments and share these results with their employees to determine strengths and development gaps in competency.

ECBM also supports 360 degree assessments (employee, manager, peers, employee’s employees) allowing for a more comprehensive assessment of employees and leaders. Results are reported by competency group in terms of Competency Strengths and Competency Gaps and then are presented in more detail for each competency (by performance / behavioral indicator) to allow for a more detailed and diagnostic assessment of the employee’s competencies. Ratings can also be supported by comments and examples to demonstrate why particular ratings have been given.

Learning Plans

The Learning Plan Manager gives Users the opportunity to develop a PERSONALISED LEARNING PLAN based on an Assessment, and gives both the User and Manager the ability to monitor and assess progress against targeted learning and development objectives.

Performance Management

This module facilitates effective performance planning, evaluation and development through MUTUAL ACCESS and INPUT into an employee’s performance. The Performance Plan encourages open communication between the Manager and the employee throughout the review period, as the plan may be amended or modified as necessary during the course of the year. A Performance log can be used to record the progressive discipline process or progress against goals.

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Systems Thinking Organisational Learning

Many organisations hit roadblocks where performance and success are concerned. We can help you look at your Human Capital Management in ways that enables rather than disables Engagement.

Systems thinking and organistional learning: Acting locally and thinking globally in the organisation of the future

There is a very important relationship between a company’s operational practices and culture with this being particularly important as the world market place rapidly changes. Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to change (Learn) and progress at a pace which can keep up with the current speed of technological and knowledge advancement.

For example this year alone will produce the equivalent of the last 5000 years of information in one year. Technology is moving so fast that what a graduate learned in year 1 of a degree course is out of date by year 4.

Systems’ thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plant and animals work together to survive or perish. In organizations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work together to make an organization healthy or unhealthy.

Systems’ thinking has been defined as an approach to problem solving, by viewing “problems” as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. Systems’ thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Systems’ thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect.

To learn more rapidly and increase flexibility in a world of growing complexity and change, firms are experimenting with new modes of organization, new reward systems, and less authoritarian values — for example, reducing hierarchy, increasing local decision-making responsibility and individual incentives, and rewarding innovation. But local decision making and individual autonomy lead to management anarchy unless managers account for the interconnections and long-term side-effects of their local decisions. Laudable goals such as ‘empowering’ and ‘enabling’ individuals often prove counterproductive unless managers can act locally and think globally (when I walk outside my home and view what I see am I looking from my doorstep what is around me in a linear way or am I standing on the moon looking at the earth as a global entity which is interconnected and having a combined impact on other things). Managers must become ‘systems thinkers’ as well as better learners.

The dynamic systems perspective illuminates some of the core challenges in organizational learning. If learning occurs through experience, there are good reasons why organizations often fail to learn. In particular, large organizations face a class of systemic decision-making situations in which learning is extremely unlikely. The systems perspective teaches us that cause and effect are often not close in time and space that obvious interventions do not always produce obvious outcomes, and that long time delays, and systemic effects of actions can make it almost impossible to judge the effectiveness of those actions. This presents a framework for organizational learning, outlining several breakdowns that thwart the learning process, and opens discussions on how systems thinking can play an important role in helping organisations overcome the learning breakdowns through the design and implementation of managerial practice fields.

Read More Search: Peter M. Senge and John D. Sterman on Systems Thinking

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Systems Thinking Healthcare

“Systems Thinking (ST) is an appreciation of the dynamics and the interdependencies in any system. Health means “whole” and is a concept that encapsulates flows, balance, economy and ecology; and the human body is a complex system of interdependent parts – each with a specific role and contribution for the general benefit. The human body demonstrates amazing adaptability and operates without a plan – the parts operating together without needing external direction or instruction. But when something goes wrong in one part of the system the whole becomes unbalanced, the collective performance deteriorates and symptoms of illness arise. Even a minor problem can seriously impair a finely balanced system if the problem occurs in a critical component. The process of healthcare is to use the symptoms to help diagnose the cause of the imbalance and to intervene to steer the human body system back towards balance; while at the same time recognising that an ill-chosen or an ill-timed intervention can push the system further out of balance – possibly to the point where the system goes out of control and is unable to maintain its integrity i.e. death. The same principles apply to any system – including the system of healthcare itself. To achieve only positive outcomes reliably and consistently in the face of a constantly changing context of both knowledge and expectation requires skill and dedication. That is why it is difficult and why it is so rewarding to work in healthcare. Simon Dodds”

Simon Dodds International Healthcare Systems Thinking Specialist Consultant – General Surgeon and Clinical Director (Foundation Trust with Multi Site Multi Specialities employing 10,000 + staff).

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