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TOOL #3: "BACKWARDS THINKING"
The Ideal Quest
"What is possible to do today, but if it could be achieved, would fundamentally change what we are?"
This tool is a simple visual summary of Tools #1 through #6, integrating them into a mental picture that is easy to remember.
The integrated Systems Thinking A-B-C-D-E visual drawing below represents a "New Orientation to Life."
It Asks First
A–Where do you ideally want to be (Desired Outcomes)?
Then, Backwards Thinking:
B–How will you know you've gotten there (Feedback is a Gift)?
C–Where are you now (Today's Issues and Problems)?
D–How do you get there (Close the gap from C A)?
And, Ongoing:
E–What may change in your environment in the future?
Systems Thinking vs. Analytic Thinking:
Analytic Thinking:
1. Starts with today and the current state, issues, and problems.
2. Breaks the issues into their smallest components.
3. Solves each component separately.
4. Has no far reaching ideal vision or goal (except for the goal of the absence of the problem).
Note:
In Systems Thinking, the whole is primary and the parts are secondary.
In Analytic Thinking, the parts are primary and the whole is secondary.
–"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."
Examples:
–In the world of work, many of us get up each day, go to work, and work very hard. But do we have a game plan for an "Ideal Future Vision" of where we want to be in a few years? Very rarely. In our western society technical schools (such as science, engineering, finance, law), we are taught to think from today forward, incrementally to the future, not vice versa.
–We also rarely get a chance to see the whole picture at work–often our jobs aren't designed for that. We work hard on our part of the organization on the assumption that if each of us does our best, the organization will thrive.
–While hard-working, competent employees are necessary for success, they are not sufficient. In Backwards Thinking, you start with the future, define its ideal, and only then do you try to fit all the parts of the system together to support each other.
–In our personal lives, we read left to right, we focus on today's activities and our small location of the world. Is it any wonder that most of us are excellent left-brained, analytical thinkers?
The more right-brained, wholistic, and strategic thinkers are few and far between. For, Systems Thinking and Strategic Thinking are the same.
Summary–
So, in reality for most people in western society, this tool with its A-B-C-D-E methodology represents a New Orientation to Life.
It sounds simple, but the rest of society focuses on the parts first and not the whole.
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