- Structure drives behavior. The way your organization is structured—flat, crossfunctional, hierarchical or “siloed”—will drive the way your staff behaves.
- Think operationally, not correlationally. Watch the way things actually work and the way the parts fit together, especially when they are perturbed, rather than how you think they work.
- Everything important has a cause and effect relationship, and the cause and effect may not be closely related in space and time. Don’t get tied up in the purity of this approach; smoking really does cause cancer. This is an extension of thinking operationally. Find an “effect” and look for the cause.
- Break away from linear thinking. Begin to have a “stone in the lake” view rather than a “leaf in a stream” view of the world.
- Challenge the current mental models. We have models in our minds about how things work; learn to question those models. Develop new and possible or trial models. Play with the implications. “Suppose” and “What if ?” are the key concepts for ST.
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