OOP2023-Systems Thinking for Impactful Changes

Transcript

1. Systems Thinking for Impactful Changes
   #Midjourney
   Xin Yao
   OOP, July 2023
   

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2. Contextualizing DDD &
   architecture in large change efforts
   Conversation facilitator
   Boundary spanner, connector
   Idea spreader, change maker
   About me
   01
   02
   03
   Xin Yao
   Independent consultant
   Lives in Copenhagen, Denmark
   Loves gardening, yoga, sci-​
   fi, theater,
   good food, hanging out with friends and family
   @settling_mud
   [email protected]
   @[email protected]
   /in/xinxin/
   

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3. A tale of transformation at a large bank
   Systems
   thinking
   basics
   System
   dynamics
   modeling
   Systems
   change
   What we will cover today
   

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4. A tale of transformation at a large bank
   Systems
   thinking
   basics
   System
   dynamics
   modeling
   Systems
   change
   

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5. Context: A large Nordic bank
   3,5 m+ customers
   (B2C + B2B)
   22,000+ employees
   4,000+ in engineering
   (10 countries)
   +150 years old
   2000+ IT systems
   

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6. Organizations as sociotechnical systems
   Social systems
   (Complex)
   Engineered systems
   (Complicated)
   [software]
   [organization]
   The environment
   

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7. Systems building blocks: feedbacks & delays
   Reinforcing loop Balancing loop
   Births Population
   +
   delay
   +
   Deaths
   +
   delay
   -
   NOTE: Causal loop diagram is one tool, among many, in system dynamics modeling.
   

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8. Cause and effect can be far apart in
   time and space
   linear cause & effect
   Non-​
   linear feedback loop
   There’s a fundamental mismatch between
   the nature of reality in complex systems and
   our predominant ways of thinking about
   that reality.
   The first step is correcting that mismatch is
   to let go of the notion that cause and effect
   are close in time and space.
   ~Peter Senge
   now
   in one
   year
   

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9. The eventual consistency time span in a social
   system is much larger than that in an
   engineered system.
   

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10. Graphic: Juliet Young
    Higher leverage at a different time, and place
    

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11. Policy should protect the
    future from the past, not the
    past from the future.
    ~Tim O'Reilly
    
    medium.com
    Predatory Delay and
    the Rights of Future
    Generations
    We owe the future.
    How can we be more responsible for the
    future by the choices we make today
    

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12. A tale of transformation at a large bank
    Systems
    thinking
    basics
    System
    dynamics
    modeling
    Systems
    change
    

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13. 2020: Reorg & change initiative
    DDD & API
    evangelism
    Cloud &
    DevOps
    evangelism Agile coaching
    Decoupled &
    reusable APIs
    Software delivery speed
    Agility,
    autonomy
    +
    +
    +
    +
    Engineering
    maturity
    +
    +
    +
    +
    Enabling tribe Enabling tribe Enabling tribe
    Journey/Platform tribes
    Source: Henrik Kniberg & Anders Ivarsson
    delay
    delay
    delay
    

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14. DDD reinforcing feedback loop
    Facilitated DDD
    workshops
    Eagerness to
    practice DDD
    Perceived value of DDD
    API delivery speed
    Domain modeling
    quality
    Domain
    understanding
    +
    +
    +
    +
    +
    +
    delay
    delay
    

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15. Facilitated DDD
    workshops
    Eagerness to
    practice DDD
    Perceived value of DDD
    API delivery speed
    Domain modeling
    quality
    Domain understanding
    +
    +
    +
    +
    +
    + Availability of DDD
    enabling capacity
    Utilization of DDD
    enabling team
    Demand on DDD
    workshop facilitators
    +
    +
    +
    -
    DDD enabling capacity limits DDD "growth"
    Reinforcing loop Balancing loop
    

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16. Pressure to increase
    WIP for DDD
    enabling team
    Pressure on DDD evangelists
    to rush domain discovery
    Premature
    convergence
    DDD enabling
    team attrition
    Stress & burn-​
    out in
    DDD enabling team
    Idle API engineers
    in enabling team
    API specification
    velocity per
    domain
    Intervention makes matters worse
    Facilitated DDD
    workshops
    Eagerness to
    practice DDD
    Perceived value of DDD
    API delivery speed
    Domain modeling
    quality
    Domain understanding
    +
    +
    +
    +
    +
    +
    -
    -
    - +
    +
    +
    +
    +
    

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17. System archetype:
    Limit to growth/success
    Source: William Braun - "The System Archetypes"
    Structure Trend
    

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18. System dynamics
    modeling vocabulary
    System variables
    Causal links Delays
    Feedback loops
    now
    in one
    year
    problem
    symptom
    Symptomatic
    solution
    Fundamental
    solution
    +
    -
    +
    -
    side
    effect
    +
    -
    nouns, verbs sentences, scenes Recurring plot lines
    System
    archetypes
    example
    

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19. Why do we keep seeing
    the same problems
    recur over time?
    What leverage do we
    have to impact the
    system's underlying
    structure?
    diagnostic use prospective use
    How do system archetypes help us
    • Limits to Growth (aka Limits to Success)
    • Shifting the Burden
    • Eroding Goals
    • Escalation
    • Success to the Successful
    • Tragedy of the Commons
    • Fixes that Fail
    • Growth and Underinvestment
    • Accidental Adversaries
    • Attractiveness Principle
    ...
    System archetypes
    

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20. What is systems thinking
    Interdependencies
    Living systems
    Many parts
    Synthetic holism Analytical reductionism
    Synthetic holism Analytical reductionism
    Graphics: Systems Innovation Network
    Mechanistic thinking Systems thinking
    

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21. Philosophy of systems thinking
    Relationality See the whole Living system Causality Meta-​
    cognition
    *multivalent interdepend-​
    encies (both-​
    and vs. either-​
    or)
    *multi-​
    dimensional decision -​
    product, business, domain,
    tech, people
    To cultivate an appreciation of
    *step back and look from
    outside
    *ask "why & where" before
    "What, when, how"
    purpose-​
    driven
    design
    relation-​
    driven
    design
    design for
    self-​
    organization
    impactful design thinking as an
    emergent property
    *autopoesis - designer
    embedded in system
    *VUCA (volatile, uncertain,
    complex, ambiguous)
    *model and understand
    system dynamics
    *influence at high leverage
    point
    *thinking itself as a CAS
    (complex adaptive system)
    *Practice moves & grooves to
    think better, together
    (DSRP**)
    **DSRP: Distinctions, Systems, Relations, Perspectives
    (Dr. & Dr. Cabrera, Cornell University)
    

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22. Many change strategies: Open loop thinking
    Credit: James E. Paine
    

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23. What happened?
    What did we expect?
    What can we learn from the gap?
    1.
    2.
    3.
    How much do we study what has
    succeeded or failed in the past
    operational models
    past strategies
    organizing approaches
    It's no wonder that a new CEO typically
    sees his or her job as pushing a new
    strategy, almost as if there were no
    history.
    ~Peter Senge, "the Fifth Discipline"
    Retro?
    Illustration: Michael Sahota
    

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24. Credit: John D. Sterman, James E. Paine
    Change efforts often fail because we don't understand the
    full range of feedbacks operating in the system
    Yesterday’s solution can become today’s problem
    

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25. These models are hypotheses that need to be put to test,
    and those tests become part of the feedback loops.
    Our system models are not perfect, but they are necessary
    for us to make sense of the complex reality, and act in it.
    System dynamics modeling helps us
    build models of closed feedback loops
    

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26. A tale of transformation at a large bank
    Systems
    thinking
    basics
    System
    dynamics
    modeling
    Systems
    change
    

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27. Hurray! We can use system dynamics
    modeling to understand and impact systems.
    

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28. How do fish explain the water they are in?
    

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29. The transformation story:
    You are only seeing my view of the world
    My experiences
    My data selections
    My perspectives
    My assumptions
    My conclusions
    My beliefs
    half empty?
    half full?
    

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30. You are not even seeing my view of the world
    

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31. Where do mental models come from?
    

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32. Mental models reflect prior experiences ("priors")
    

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33. What are your priors? What are his?
    

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34. Predictive mind
    1. See scraps
    of the world
    2. Piece it together
    with the help of
    filters & priors
    3. Pick up prediction
    errors - update
    mental models
    observation prediction correction
    We see less
    than what's
    really there
    because
    of filtering
    We see more
    than what's
    really there by
    adding our
    "priors"
    How we build and evolve mental models
    

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35. We don't see things as they are,
    we see things as we are.
    ~ Anaïs Nin
    We create the world
    we expect to see
    

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36. 
    gustdebacker.com
    Cognitive Biases (2023):
    Complete List of 151
    Biases [Psychology] -
    Gust de Backer
    Cognitive biases, there are so many of
    them... Decisions we make based on
    emotion, cognitive biases are irrational
    'errors' that are programmed into
    people's brains and affect the decision-
    making process. Plenty of different
    articles have been written a…
    Our mental models are full of cognitive biases
    

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37. A transformation isn't an event. It's a
    progressive accumulation of habits.
    -​Andrew Clay Shafer
    Transformation programs
    React
    events
    Trends
    Structures
    Mental
    models
    Anticipate
    Design
    Transform
    Credit: Systems Innovation Network
    

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38. Culture (collective habits) for an organization is
    like personality for a person. Your energy to try to
    change it will tend to make it stronger.
    ~Peter Senge
    

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39. My worst event storming workshop
    

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40. Workshop retrospective
    You are too in
    love with your
    model :-).
    We don't see
    forest, only trees
    You=Me
    model=event storming
    

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42. We see the world through our mental models
    Illustration : Jeff Patton
    

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43. Externalize our thinking visually
    "Make the implicit explicit"
    Illustration : Jeff Patton
    

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44. Combine & refine - integrate perspectives
    Illustration : Jeff Patton
    

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45. discussion
    Reflective conversation
    Credit: David Bohm, Peter Senge, Chris Argyris
    advocacy
    advocacy inquiry
    Here is how I see it.
    Here are the facts that
    support how I see it
    I know I don't see the
    whole picture, how
    do you see it?
    Here is what I think
    this data/episode
    means...
    Do you see it
    differently? Oh,
    that's a perspective
    I haven't considered
    Do you see gaps in
    my reasoning?
    Here is my view and
    here is how I arrived
    at it.
    dialogue
    

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46. What is it about this
    situation, and about
    me or others, that is
    making open
    exchange difficult?
    The questions that got us unstuck
    What are you
    most passionate
    about
    contributing to in
    this domain?
    What is the future
    we dream of for this
    domain?
    

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47. What happened after event storming
    Collective
    reflection
    Inquiry &
    advocacy
    

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48. To DDD or not to DDD
    Q: Why do you still
    want to finish the
    DDD Workshop series?
    A: You were trying to
    convince us before.
    Now we are testing
    ideas together.
    

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49. Freedom wasn't possible before I updated my mental model of
    what enabling is, and is not.
    For change makers and change facilitators, the changes
    required are not only in our organizations, but also in ourselves.
    Let's be mindful of our urge to evangelize what we believe is
    right.
    How the truth set me free
    

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50. To enable is to lead, or unlead?
    Task-​
    oriented
    Skill-​
    oriented
    Relationally
    oriented
    

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51. Connection before content
    Inspired by: Peter Block
    As the quality of relationships strengthens, the
    quality of thinking improves.
    When we engage in reflective conversations,
    we connect better with each other.
    we connect better with ourselves.
    we connect better with a larger and emergent
    outcome, not attainable individually.
    

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52. Systems changes go far beyond systems thinking
    Thinking together
    ("meta-​
    cognition")
    Learning together
    ("meta-​
    awareness")
    Systems change
    Learning together is more than thinking together
    

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53. Shared
    aspiration
    Systems changes require our full humanity
    A cognitive approach won't take us all the way there
    Creative
    tension
    Reflective
    conver-​
    sation
    Growing
    from
    struggle
    A common deep caring
    a creative yearning
    Generate energy & focus
    See reality as an ally
    Deep commitment
    Relatedness
    Willingness to be vulnerable,
    to be exposed with our
    biases & limitations
    Learning together
    ("meta-​
    awareness")
    

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54. Listening to the wisdom of the system
    Creativity
    Politeness
    Discussion
    Dialogue
    Learning together
    ("meta-​
    awareness")
    

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55. Life is not a problem to be
    solved, but a reality to be
    experienced.
    ~ Søren Kierkegaard
    

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56. What if I am not a leader
    How do you change the world?
    One room at a time.
    Which room? The one you're in.
    ~ Peter Block
    

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57. Profound changes are both deeply personal and
    deeply systemic.
    Systems changes require us to look outward,
    forward and backward, and inward.
    Peter Senge Russell Ackoff
    Donella Meadows
    

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58. What is needed in sociotechnical systems changes
    technological
    sophistication
    human
    sophistication
    modeling
    analysis
    simulation
    visualization
    synthesis
    categorization
    leadership
    advocacy
    self-​
    organization
    listening inquiry
    meta-​
    cognition (DSRP)
    emotional intelligence
    systems thinking
    system dynamics modeling
    technological advancements
    architecture
    adaptive learning
    creativity
    productivity
    mental models
    meta-​
    awareness (interoception)
    

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59. A tale of transformation in a large bank
    Systems
    basics
    Systems
    dynamics
    modeling
    Systems
    change
    What we've covered today
    

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60. Thank you
    @settling_mud
    [email protected]
    @[email protected]
    /in/xinxin/
    

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