Diana Montalion

Systems thinking as collective decision making

March 5, 2019 by Diana Montalion

Strategic and systems thinking are interrelated and interdependent. Technology initiatives, especially complex ones, rely on both. Avoid drowning in the gaps between them. Build bridges with strong collective decision making.

Teamwork is a strategic decision. –Patrick Lencioni

In our last article, we explored strategic thinking. In this article, we’ll examine systems thinking as collective decision making. Successful initiatives depend on both strategic and systems thinking — they are interrelated. To be honest, I find them difficult to extricate because they meet similar needs.

Both conceptualize circumstances as ecosystems, evolving holistically from a present state to a future state. Both predict how changes in one area will impact, positively or negatively, the whole. Both seek to optimize those ecosystems.

Strategic and systems thinking are also interdependent. Strategies manifest as systems and systems embody a strategic purpose. The system’s priority is work that is valuable to that purpose.

They are merely divergent points of view. Oversimply, strategic thinking focuses on Why and What. Systems thinking looks at How. Both, in their own way, value emergence: the whole becoming greater than the sum of its parts.

[continue …]

Defining strategic thinking

December 11, 2018 by Diana Montalion

In this inaugural edition of Architecting Enterprise, we begin at the beginning: strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is the alpha topic because crafting context gives meaning and value to everything we do.

The value of every decision we make depends on the context in which we make it. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo’s journey to destroy the ring is meaningful inside the context of Middle Earth. Otherwise, he’s a short, hairy guy with apocalyptic hallucinations. Tolkien didn’t simply describe a journey, he crafted a framework in which the journey, and Frodo’s choices, have value.

In the real world, crafting a framework is also the vocation of strategic thinkers. “Crafting” is an apt descriptor. Many types of thinking — creative, analytical, critical, divergent, convergent, concrete and abstract — are central to strategic work. Alone, they are scraps of metal. Conveying ideas through writing, editing, whiteboarding, storytelling, researching, modeling, structuring, discussing, debating and re-modeling forges them into something transformative. Tolkien enabled us to see what he saw.

The ephemeral materials that give a framework structure are context, concept and integrity. Context is an understanding of the circumstances. Concept is the abstract idea, analogy or mental image that encompasses “the circumstances.” When a framework hangs together well, clearly conveying elegant simplicity, we say the structure has integrity. Integrity is the glue that holds context together as concept evolves into reality. Middle Earth has integrity.