The SYSTHAT-PENTALOGIC – the multidimensional & systemic-cybernetic observation logic.
Transformation, agility, complexity, order and change, VUCA and volatility – the series of “modern, contemporary terms” to describe our current global structural change could be continued here at will, and would probably never be complete. But not only the fact that what was previously believed to be ordered and established suddenly changes observable, unsettles us. Especially the time factor in which this happened contributes to the uncertainty. In some things – be it climate protection, for example – things are not going fast enough for us, viewed from a different perspective we are all constantly overtaking ourselves so that we can no longer grasp and control the complexity. Among other things, this has to do with the fact that we do not look at things or processes in a multidimensional way with all of their associated interactions, but mostly from a rather one-dimensional perspective. This makes things easier to understand for the first time, but we often see them taken out of context for our own benefit rather than disadvantage.
In my last blog “Understanding Cybernetics, Systemics & Complexity” I already tried to explain the terms “systemic observation logic” and “cybernetics” a little. With the following blog I would like to introduce the SYSTHAT-PENTALOGIC © , which represents a possible perspective in our VUCA world in order to capture complexity and control it cybernetically. In the next blogs I will explain one of the five dimensions in more detail.
TAKE TIME . “ Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.” (A. Einstein). With this, Einstein describes in one sentence very well the peculiarities of socially complex systems – how humans represent the smallest socially complex system – and the properties of data or information as individual system parameters. Information in the sense of individual data is arbitrary, mostly not networked and often without meaning for us humans. But if we manage to network information and view it in a certain context, then one can ultimately also speak of feedback or learning experience. We have long since left the “IT age” in the sense of the acquisition of data in an electronic system – the question arises more and more of how we can get timely and valid information from our often prevailing “data graveyard” deal and gain experience. Only that will bring us to certain knowledge in the course of time. Which data or information are observable & describable for us, or even seem relevant and thus perhaps “noteworthy”, is decided by each person in their personal context through their PERCEPTION. We can perceive this phenomenon in a remarkably real way, for example in our current COVID-19 pandemic. Here we can only validly state that we do not know anything for sure, because we lack the passage of time and the verification of knowledge. Over time, however, we will be able to process more and more information, check its validity better and better, and draw ever better conclusions from our learning experience if we have been willing to deal with it in the past, or at least to acquire a certain knowledge brought with us so that we can observe, describe and evaluate. Admittedly, time and resource consuming. Passing on “data or information” taken out of context without validating it is, of course, at first glance much more resource-saving and widespread practice.
As NLC Business GmbH with our SYSTHAT brand, we have innovatively taken the time and space for decades to deal with models and approaches that are valid for us, to understand how they work and to apply them in practice in the various functions. By means of observations, descriptions and feedback, we have gained knowledge and gained learning experience, which we now want to make available in our SYSTHAT pentalogic as a thinking model so that people, organizations or other systems can cope with the transformation, become or remain agile, and systemics and cybernetics can anchor as basic logic
The five dimensions of the SYSTHAT-PENTALOGIC © . With the Systhat pentalogic we want to create a logic that at least starts the attempt to represent a highly complex topic in a model. A picture is worth a thousand words … we would like to try that with the Systhat pentalogic. In this model there are of course established and almost tried and tested approaches that we have tried to innovatively adapt to the regularities of today’s transformation phase. Old but good, combining tradition and innovation. As shown in my last blog, the systemic understanding, cybernetics or the constructivist approach are not new ideas, but well-tried currents. We find these more up-to-date than ever, because especially in phases of transformation it is necessary to understand and be able to use certain regularities and modes of operation in order to be able to master complexity, dynamics, speed and volatility.
The Systhat pentalogic considers socially complex systems – that is, from people to work organizations to social systems – under the following logic of the “five (penta) levers:
1. Where do we come from and where are we going – coming from history into the future?
2. How do we actively shape the future & what must we therefore strategically and operationally align or organize?
3. How do we succeed in not forgetting the soul of the system, in other words, the social aspect of “human beings” with their values and culture (hidden agenda) in all our activities and actions in focus?
The central aspect is therefore firstly not only the pure two-dimensionality in the sense of the classic “if-then-logic”, which simplifies the complexity too much and therefore does not actually take the correctness into account, but the perspective of space & time in the mapping of the Three-dimensionality. It is the human or organization system as a “processing system” from input (in whatever form) to the desired output. This is based on history (who we are, what makes us who we are) and with the future idea as a drive and orientation. In the further course we focus on the drivers and influencing factors from outside, i.e. from the relevant environment of the system, which affect the forces and dynamics in the system. And of course on the passage of time.
The lowest common denominator . From a systemic point of view, humans are the smallest, socially complex system. Far Eastern ways of thinking have been conveying systemic logics to us for a long time, but in strikingly traditional sentences such as “A healthy mind and soul live in a healthy body!” Then the system would be 100% optimally functional – a rarity! Who we are (i.e. our DNA), where we come from (i.e. our original family system) and what defines us in terms of values through our early childhood is therefore historically established. And that’s a good thing, because it gives us a stable basic structure from which we can develop more and more independently. Ideally, we will further develop our intellectual / cognitive skills and gain knowledge through learning. We also continue to develop our body (probably even after a disruptive transformation in puberty) and hope that it will remain healthy and stable for as long as possible. As a soul, we like to subsume terms such as feeling, feelings or our psyche. Of course, this is only sketched very simply and incompletely. But it represents the three corner pillars of the human system.
It is therefore clear that the “human system” is constantly changing over time – whether driven from within or by external influences. If we are socially standardized in our school systems, we are challenged physically or mentally in working life and, ideally, we are further developed – something is always happening. We go through different phases in life, in which the stability of our own system is often put to the test – one time our body works suboptimally, another time there is mental or emotional dissonance. In short: we never work optimally continuously. Usually not only we notice this ourselves (and usually very late), but our relevant environment can perceive this noticeably, such as our partners, children, parents, etc. And with this we influence our next more complex systems, such as the partnership, the family , our work team, etc., because all these systems consist of an association of individual people – whether for value creation based on the division of labor in a work system or social added value in a family system.
The greatest common multiple . Is often difficult to reach. As briefly outlined in the previous section, every human being is in a certain way a self-directed, but also purposeful and goal-oriented being. The same applies to work organization. The only purpose and thus the raison d’être of a work organization are the customers. Founders and owners have an idea of their special abilities with which they can convert an input into a value-adding output, which is useful to the customers, which is why they buy it. A work organization is therefore made up of many minds, bodies and souls, which, ideally, aligned with the vision of the owners and with the help of executives as strategists, use their basic skills and strengths in order to satisfy the needs of customers through the optimal output. Sounds logical and simple, but it isn’t. It is very complex. Already inside this organizational system.
Let’s start with the logic: “Where do we come from, where are we going (history & future)?” Knut Bleicher, former professor of management studies at the University of St. Gallen, put the complexity of this topic very appropriately in one sentence: “We work in yesterday’s structures with today’s methods on tomorrow’s problems, primarily with people who built yesterday’s structures and will no longer experience tomorrow within the organization. ” There is of course something to it, especially in the transformation phases, but the problem usually starts much earlier with the owners’ visions. Usually it is not clear or if there are several people the opinions differ as to where their organizations will be in at least 7-10 years and which strategic directions it would take to get there. It is often just a wish that we are heading in the right direction! It will go on as long as it goes.
We come to the three human pillars of body / mind / soul. In work organizations, this can be translated as follows:
– Spirit is the meaning of the company’s strategy & direction , which you logically align yourself with if you as a manager or employee do not want to swim against the current (provided that this is transparent!)
– Body in the sense of the organization and processes in the company, which it needs to control or support along the value chain in order to convert input into output as optimally and resource-savingly as possible, but also the physical effort of the employees
– Soul in the sense of the corporate culture & values that an organization lives internally and externally. This page is usually the “hidden page” (hidden agenda) as in our illustration of the pentahedron, and therefore not easy to recognize at first glance. But at least as important as the strategy and organization, only more “human”. However, this topic is no different even with the smallest, socially complex human system.
The problem in work organizations is not to keep the individual five dimensions (in this case the five surfaces of the pentahedron) functional, but in systems it is the interactions and thus the interplay between them that counts. This is achieved through communication. More details on this in the third part “Organization” of our five-part series. But a simple example beforehand, which you may know yourself from your life: What use are the best systems and processes if the human soul is not ready to use them. It doesn’t work even if the system and the person are functional.
Even if an organization manages to perform well or optimally because everything runs smoothly and works well together, we must not forget – as is clearly shown in the current pandemic – that every system has a relevant environment or an environment with whom it is in exchange. Now it’s getting really complex …
The friction-free interaction . From W for World Cup, WHO, World Wide Web to the younger generation’s understanding of global citizenship – all these systems are complexities that the human mind can hardly or hardly understand. We see and feel this every day – we are particularly aware of it in the global pandemic and its consequences in the current phase of transformation. Resource scarcity, delivery delays, restrictions due to the pandemic, new social order, changed work models, etc. – nothing fits together as well and without friction as our picture on the left could show as a merger of many “pentahedral systems”.
The picture of the pentahedron shown above only shows as an example which influencing variables “from outside” have an impact on the various companies in the individual industries or economic systems. There are significantly more – and they also interact with one another. As is known in nature, technology or a similar discipline, such influencing variables naturally have very different effects on the various organizations. Agile, small start-ups naturally have fewer problems to adapt, but they lack a certain stability that companies that have grown over decades bring with them and also have a certain forgiving system characteristic. Successful companies that have grown for decades are of course struggling much more intensely with transformation and innovation, but often have staying power and don’t feel the need to do so – i.e. the need that needs to be averted in order to be successful in the future. Without this necessity, transformation and reorganization cannot take place. The autopoiesis of systems and the property of system preservation weigh more heavily than the vision of change.
On the dogmmen. There is nothing to be seen in black or white. If you have stayed with us until this point, I thank you for your attention and recommend that you keep checking our blog in the coming weeks, where I would be happy to give you my thoughts on the five dimensions of our SYSTHAT-PENTALOGIC.
With the SYSTHAT pentalogic, we want to make a contribution to how people, organizations or systems can manage to bring order into what feels like chaotic times, to bring structure into apparently confused areas, but above all to underline the time factor, the phases of transformation require. If in year two of the pandemic we already have the feeling that this COVID-19 pandemic lasts forever and seems endless – we are only beginning with the transformation of the previous economic paradigms, social systems or the “socio-ecological current”! How long all of this ultimately took, what input and resources it needed to achieve the right output, what losses and damage innovation caused, we will probably learn as knowledge from the history books of the 22nd century.
Until then, we would like to support you to get through the transformation as well as possible and offer you support and guidance in many areas where we have our core competencies , such as
– Strategy development & customer benefit analyzes at top management level
– Stakeholder analysis & management
– System diagnostics of your work organizations or areas
– Support in digital transformation & agile project management
– agile workshop models for the further development of the corporate culture
– Team building measures & performance enhancement
– Search for and support along the “Employee Life-Cycle”
– Training and further education concepts for specialists and executives
– Conflict management by means of mediation or mediative workshop designs
– Sparring & coaching for executives
For me, further training is not just a catchphrase, it is a matter of course. That’s why I’m researching an exciting research question as part of my master’s degree in the field of consulting and communication sciences with a focus on mediation and conflict resolution. In the next two weeks we will therefore start a large-scale survey of executives around the research question of my current master’s thesis: “Chances and limits of agility and lateral hierarchies in work organizations with the associated potential for conflict”. We would be delighted if you would like to participate or recommend our call for research – many thanks in advance! You will find details on this in the next two weeks on our homepage under “news”.
What is your observation about this, what have we not yet considered? We look forward to your comments and input so that we can have a better view of things together. Let’s SYSTHAT!
