OBSERVATIONS AND STUDY CONCLUSION
5.2 Using Systems Thinking in a Project Environment
This study has helped the author to put systems thinking into perspective with respect to the field ofproject management. As a project manager who has spent many years solving problems by taking things apart and dealing with the pieces, taking an integrative or holistic perspective has been a difficult paradigm shift for him to make. Having taken a real problem situation that involved human interaction and used a soft systems thinking approach to introduce improvements, the author now firmly believes that systems thinking can have significant benefits for project management. However, it is important that the project manager is trained to look for the patterns in behaviour so that appropriate changes to the structure of the system may be made. The understanding of the importance of double loop learning and causal relationships is critical if sustained changes in system behaviour are to be achieved.
The problems that one faces on large complex projects where the boundaries are changing frequently and continuously, requires not a reductionist view, but a systemic perspective to see how everything fits together and how changes in one part of the system affects others. When applied to projects that have a large IT component, the traditional project
management methods and procedures still play an important role, but the author now understands the importance of getting the involvement of a wide variety of stakeholders at the early stage of the project. The application of systems tools to assist in hard and soft issues can be a very valuable weapon in the armoury of the project manager. However, it is felt that one must get more experience with the methodologies and tools, as there is such a vast array of them. Knowing which to use in order to obtain the most benefits is still quite confusing and the author feels that it would be very beneficial to work with an experienced practitioner in order to see these applied to different real life situations. This study certainly provided the means of getting more experience with the choice of tools in one such real life problem situation.
A further reflection that the author has is how one would actually apply these tools in an organisation that is not familiar with systems thinking. In many large conservative organisations, executive management still have an authoritarian and autocratic approach to introducing changes to the way things are to be done. They seem to lack the
understanding of how this disempowers the majority of people within organisation and how by treating people as an unthinking component within the system, they are in fact causing the organisation to under perform. The culture of mistrust is perpetuated. Systems thinking provides the project manager with an awareness of this and gives some ideas on how to deal with it. Although the author concedes that this is still very early days in his career as a systems thinking practitioner, he agrees with Cooper (1998) who states that a criticism of systems thinking is that "many ofthe tools and approaches are so esoteric that most people can not begin to apply them injob situations". Itis clear that one would derive much more benefits from this approach if others involved were also schooled in systems thinking so that they can better understand the process as it unfolds.
Although systems thinking advocates that one approaches the system as a whole,
translating this into an effective methodology is very challenging, especially for someone who is used to following fairly standard methods and procedures. One of the downfalls that the author believes exists with the application of systems thinking is the amount of time it takes to get to the required outcome. Bearing in mind that projects have a time constraint (by definition) and that in almost all projects there is hardly sufficient time to just deliver the product, spending time bringing more stakeholders (many of whom may have different or opposing viewpoints) on board will be seen by management as inviting
trouble and delays. The core of the systemic approach is that one needs to gain insight into the perspectives of others. Itforces one to look much wider and deeper than the boundary of the project. Applying this in most organisations that use scientific management and reductionist principles for projects and problem solving is not an
insignificant hurdle that will need to be overcome. However, one should weigh up the cost of not using systems thinking where, although the product may be delivered on time, the actual success of the proj ect will be questionable. This can be attested to by the many failed or partially failed projects worldwide. Insuch cases the product may be delivered on time, in budget and according to specification; however ifthe users were not properly consulted at the outset regarding their needs, or if they weren't briefed about it prior to its implementation, they are just as likely to reject the new system.
Stacey (2002) is of the opinion that we have become conquered by systems thinking by thinking of ourselves and our interactions with each other as if we are systems.
Although the above has dealt with project managementinparticular, the author feels that as much ifnot more benefit can be obtained by applying a systems thinking approach to large complex programmes. Here, many projects integrate together over a period of time and the consequences (expected or otherwise) need to be considered very carefully throughout the entire life cycle of the programme. Effective programme management requires a big picture view, a long-term orientation, and the ability to make trade-offs and to deal with complexity and ambiguity. These are conceptual and strategic tasks. Also, typically in a programme, the stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds and have even more widely held expectations and perspectives. As suggested by Ayers (undated), only by drawing all these people together using a systems approach will the programme have a hope of being successful.
Anadvantage of applying systems thinking to the study prior to embarking on action research is that it allowed for a thorough study to be done on the politics and culture within the organisation. Although SSM also requires that this view of the system be considered (see discussion elsewhere in this chapter), looking at the problem situation from a systemic view point and within the different boundaries brought these issues out earlier in the process and ensured that it was always a consideration in all aspects of the later action research. Furthermore, when the final stages of the research were reached in
the two cycles and action was about to be taken, the understanding of what to look out for and especially the importance of ensuring that any change was culturally acceptable remained prominent in the minds of the people making the changes.
Continuous learning is an essential part of any project as it increases the ability of the team to perform better. It demands a high standard of attention, inquiring action and truth seeking. For this reason every project should be considered a learning organization.