Janet Macaluso (MSOD, Ed.M., CPC) presents a recorded workshop on systems thinking and developmental leadership. She argues that siloed, piecemeal thinking produces fragmented ways of working and leading; instead she recommends a developmental, self-assessing approach using systems-thinking frameworks. Central is a "three lines of work" (me/we/community) model: first line = self/leadership; second line = team/organization; third line = ecosystem/stakeholders/beneficiaries. The workshop guides listeners through journaling prompts to identify their third line, envision its next-stage potential, and determine the meaningful role their self and team must play to realize that potential; participants then crystallize these insights into a premise or draft belief to guide action.
Chapters
So let's begin talking about thinking and working in living whole systems. Because I have a premise that a fragmented, siloed, piecemeal type of thinking leads to a fragmented, siloed, piecemeal way of doing, being and leading. So we're going to look at our whole systems and we'll do it in a developmental approach. And I have this desire to put the D back in learning and development. So we'll take a developmental approach, meaning I'm not the expert, I'm not a guru telling you the answer. What I will do is offer some provocative questions and some systems thinking frameworks and you will self reflect on real concrete specific issues in your real life. And then you will assess them, discern at a higher level, compare, contrast. Once you do this type of thinking that we'll go through thinking on paper, I'm going to ask you to develop some premises, a first draft of what are your higher order thinking beliefs after you've spent some time thinking this way developmentally. So please get out your notebook, find a quiet space without interruptions. I will be using systemic thinking frameworks asking those provocative questions. And my role that I'm asking of you is that you use ruthless rigor in your own self assessment. And when you do that, you won't need an external party telling you the answers, because you'll have a framework to which you will be assessing and discerning your own thinking. And doing that over and over builds inner capability and your inner compass. So let's start with the first self assessment. Each time I do an assessment, I'll start with a self assessment and then share with you another version of that. That is for your system. Here's a quote that I like from Peter Senge. Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing holes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots. And as you can see with these Russian dolls here, that I'm talking about living systems being nested inside another living system. You'll get this in just a moment as I'm going to share with you the three lines of work. That is a systemic thinking framework showing that we're nested systems. The first line of work for this exercise will be you thinking about yourself and your own leadership, that work that you bring into existence. So you in this case are the first line of work. The second line of work is your team, maybe your function or your organization, if you have a smaller organization. So that together in the second line of work, we are working together in service of something. The second line are your co collaborators working together. And you're working together on behalf of your third line of work. And that's your ecosystem, your industry, the segment or domain you work in. It also includes your stakeholders of your beneficiaries, who benefits from the work of the first line of work and the second line of work. Working together, you offer your third line of work, your beneficiary, Bisharies, something. Now that's your people, your places, or your causes. So there's the three lines of work. I like to think about them as me, we and community. Or it could be it. If you're working on, let's say, a large development. And one thing that I think is important to look at here is there's some potential that we may or may not take advantage of, but it is there. With every three lines of work here, there's an opportunity to address the complexity and the diversity and to add more value. So if the three lines of work are working harmoniously and optimally, we can add more value and address more complexity than if you or I were working solo all by ourselves. So now it's your turn. I'm going to ask you to think about your own personal three lines of work. It can be personal, meaning family or your community together in your three lines of work. Or it could be you looking at your own work that you do in the nested system, the three lines of work, either personally and professionally for you. So the first question is actually asking you to identify your third line of work. Your people, your places and your causes. I'm not starting with the first line, which is you, so that might seem a little counterintuitive, but we often focus on self development and self improvement. And here I'm starting with system actualization, systems development. So identify in your journal, whatever you're using to write down. What is your third line of work? Your people, your places, your causes. And once you think about that, I'll give you two minutes to think about that and you'll have this recording so you can go back and stop. What is its next stage of potential and growth? What is your third line seeking to evolve into? Next, you might have heard of Wayne Gretzky, hockey player, who used to say, I skate to where the puck will be. So instead of thinking about, here's my third line, and I want to solve their existing problems and give them a solution, what I'm asking you to think about is what are they aspiring to be? Maybe they don't even know about it yet. But what's their next stage of. Of potential? That's where innovation lies. That might take all of our time that I'm giving you the two minutes for just identifying your third line and its next stage of growth, its potential. And then finally, the third question is, what is the meaningful role that the second line and the first line me and my team need to play in order to fulfill the meaningful purpose of that third line? If you need more, you'll be able to use the recording and pause. So this was the first framework we looked at yourself in your own personal or professional three lines of work. And now from there, want you to create a premise, crystallize your thinking, if you will, and capture what is a premise or a draft belief. What is core? If you had to write one sentence to say, this is what's core. It's your draft belief. So now we're going to look at that again and I will share with you how to do this with your team. Your team's not with us right now, or maybe it is, but here's the questions you'll ask your team. They're basically very similar. Identify our third line, our people, places or causes, and together as a team. What is our third line's next stage of potential and growth? Skating to where the puck will be. What is your third line aspiring to evolve to and then to play a meaningful role, a positive and. And meaningful contribution to that third line? We all need to grow the first line and the second line, and we need to attend more to what and less to what. So your team will spend time with this and then again, crystallize your thinking. So it's not so much you're reporting out, this is my answer. You're actually elevating that because you're thinking now, and then you're elevating your thinking by saying, here's a premise, it's a draft belief that I'm now holding about what I believe a whole system needs to be flourishing, working on all pistons and integrating optimally on behalf of our third line, Always on behalf of the third line. Get crystal clear on that. And then what is the leadership that I need to develop and we, as a second line need to develop to be able to deliver on that promise. So there you go. That's the first assessment around whole systems. The next one is more probably relevant if you are in an organization and sometimes you might feel like you're in a boat like this where people in the organization are sub optimizing their piece of the pie, looking and saying, well, I'M okay, you're not. But a regenerative mind thinks in whole systems. So most people are very clear on their own job, their own function, their own silo. You know what your team is doing, more or less, and you certainly know what you do for your own work. But most of the work that we do, it cuts across the groups, the processes, the activities, and that's where the friction brews. So let's start with the self assessment around your organization. Just think about it for yourself now then we can again I'll share with you a slide that you can do with your team. So for you personally at work, given your own goals, your own projects, pursuits and objectives, I'm going to ask these questions so you'll hear them one time through to take to your journal and think on paper, knowing that you will not finish all of these. So when I am thinking about my goals, pursuits and objectives, where am I spending too much time, energy focus? Where am I spending too little time, energy focus? Where am I over attending to certain activities, groups or topics? Maybe where am I under attending to those activities, groups or topics? And to what degree when I'm working day to day, meeting to meeting, moment to moment, am I keeping the whole in mind? Where and when do I seem to collapse into those piecemeal fragments and silos? Where does my work integrate and for whom? What is the end user seeking to evolve to the end user of my work and that end user, what's their potential? Finally, to what degree do my work processes build capability in my customers and end users? Take a step back from whatever you've gotten, knowing you didn't finish, most likely, what's core? What's crystallizing in your thinking when you think about whole systems? Go back to your first premise that you already wrote. How would you elevate that first premise? Same question, what's core for whole systems to be flourishing, to be working vibrantly in integrating optimally on behalf of of the third line, evolution of its potential. So you can spend some time with that. Now here's the same thing for a team. We're gonna I, I'll go through it again. Given our goals, pursuits and objectives, where are we as a team or an organization spending too much time, energy and focus? Where are we as a team spending too little time, energy and focus? Where are we over attending to certain activities, groups or topics? Where are we under attending, to what degree are we keeping the whole in mind as we go through our work? And where do we tend to collapse into those piecemeal fragments? Parts and silos? Where does our work integrate and for whom? And to what degree? Do we do our processes build capability in our customers and end users, or are we just solving existing problems? That's important. When I think about regeneration, it's even going once one phase further, which is developing their own capability. So then the team would also do the next question, which is crystallizing your thinking. How is your thinking evolving? Review that first premise and what does it take to be vibrant and flourishing as an organization, to be working on behalf of your third line? So then you can have a rich conversation with your team, figure out where you need to focus or move towards or away from. That's it for this one. I'll see you on the next module. And we're going to be focusing on potential, not firefighting, problems. See you back.
