{"id":2316,"date":"2012-11-17T11:26:03","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T11:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=2316"},"modified":"2012-11-17T11:26:03","modified_gmt":"2012-11-17T11:26:03","slug":"systems-within-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=2316","title":{"rendered":"Systems within Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each of us is a small part of a big system.\u00a0 Each of us is a big system made of smaller parts.\u00a0The\u00a0concept of a system is\u00a0the same at all scales – it is called scale invariant<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When we put a system under a microscope we see parts that are also systems. And when we zoom in on those we see their parts are also systems. And if we look outwards with a telescope we see that we are part of a bigger system which in turn is part of an even\u00a0bigger system.<\/p>\n

This concept of systems-within-systems has a down-side and an up-side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The down-side is that it quickly becomes impossible to create a mental picture of the\u00a0whole system-of-systems. Our caveman brains are just not up to the job.\u00a0So we just focus our impressive-but-limited cognitive capacity on the bit that affects us most. The immediate day-to-day people-and-process here-and-now stuff. And we ignore the ‘rest’. We\u00a0deliberately become ignorant – and for good reason. We do not ask about the ‘rest’\u00a0because we do not want to know because we cannot comprehend the complexity. We create cognitive comfort zones and personal silos.<\/p>\n

And we stay inside our comfort zones and we hide inside our silos.<\/p>\n

\n

Unfortunately – ignoring the ‘rest’ does not make it\u00a0go away.<\/p>\n

We are part of a system – we are affected by it and it is affected by us. That is how systems work.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>The\u00a0up-side is that all systems behave in much the same way – irrespective of the level.\u00a0 This is very handy because if we can master a method for understanding and improving a system at one level – then we can use the same method at any level.\u00a0\u00a0The only change is the degree of\u00a0detail. We can chunk up and down and\u00a0still use the same method.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The improvement scientist\u00a0needs to be\u00a0a master of one method and to be\u00a0aware of three levels: the system level, the stream level and the step level.<\/p>\n

The system provides the context for the streams. The steps provide the content of\u00a0the streams.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Direction\u00a0operates at the system level.<\/li>\n
  2. Delivery operates at the stream level.<\/li>\n
  3. Doing\u00a0operates at the step level.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So an effective and efficient improvement science method must work at all three levels – and\u00a0one method that has been demonstrated to do that\u00a0is called 6M Design\u00ae.<\/p>\n

    \n

    6M Design\u00ae\u00a0is not the only improvement science method,\u00a0and it is not intended to be the best. Being the best is not the purpose because it is not\u00a0necessary.\u00a0Having better than\u00a0what we\u00a0had before is the purpose because it is\u00a0sufficient. That is improvement.<\/p>\n

    \n

    6M Design\u00ae\u00a0works at all three levels.\u00a0 It is sufficient for system-wide and system-deep improvement. So that is what I use.<\/p>\n

    \n

    The first M stands for Map<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Maps are designed to be visual and two-dimensional because that is how our Mark-I eyeballs abd visual sensory systems work. Our caveman brains are good at using pictures and\u00a0in extraction\u00a0meaning\u00a0from the detail. It is\u00a0a survival skill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    All real systems have a\u00a0lot more than two dimensions. Safety, Quality, Flow and Cost are four dimensions to start with, and there are many more. So we need lots of maps. Each one looking at just two of the dimensions.\u00a0 It is our set of maps that\u00a0provide us with a multi-dimensional picture of the system we want to improve.<\/p>\n

    One dimension features more often in the maps than any other – and that dimension is time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    The\u00a0Western cultural\u00a0convention is to put time on the horizonal\u00a0axis with past in the left and future on the right. Left-to-right means looking forward in time.\u00a0\u00a0Right-to-left means looking\u00a0backwards in time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n

    We have already seen one of the time-dependent maps – The 4N Chart\u00ae.<\/p>\n

    It is a\u00a0Emotion-Time map. How do we feel now and why? What do we want to feel in the futrure and\u00a0why?\u00a0It is\u00a0a status-at-a-glance map. A static map. A snapshot.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>The emotional roller coaster of change – the Nerve Curve<\/strong> – is an Emotion-Time map too. It is a dynamic map – an expected trajectory map.\u00a0\u00a0The emotional\u00a0ups and downs that we expect to encounter when we engage in significant change.<\/p>\n

    Change usually involves several threads at the same time – each with its own Nerve Curve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    The 4N Charts\u00ae are snapshots of all the parallel threads of change – they evolve over time – they are our day-to-day status-at-a-glance maps – and they\u00a0guide us to which Nerve Curve to\u00a0pay attention\u00a0to\u00a0next and what to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    The map that links the three – the purposes,\u00a0the pathways and the parts\u00a0– is\u00a0the map that underpins 6M Design\u00ae. A map that most people are not familiar with because it represents a counter-intuitive way of thinking.<\/p>\n

    And it\u00a0is that critical-to-success map which differentiates\u00a0innovative design from incremental improvement.<\/p>\n

    And using that map can be learned quite quickly – if you have a guide – an Improvement Scientist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Each of us is a small part of a big system.\u00a0 Each of us is a big system made of smaller parts.\u00a0The\u00a0concept of a system is\u00a0the same at all scales – it is called scale invariant.\u00a0 When we put a system under a microscope we see parts that are also systems. And when we zoom … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “Systems within Systems”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,15,20,42,43,45,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4n-chart","category-6m-design","category-design","category-flow","category-how","category-why","category-what","category-teach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}