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January 2010 | Volume 6 | Issue 1
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“Leaders who are not planners are simply caretakers and gatekeepers.”
– Maj. Gen. Perry Smith, U.S. Air Force
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Strategic and Systems Thinking:
Best Practices Research Report
PROBLEM 6: Thinking that we know the full results of what we accomplish
BEST PRACTICE: The Rubik's Cube Effect and “unintended consequences” are key to change
"Unintended consequences is an excuse, well we do not understand the consequences"
We use the phrase "unintended consequences" to explain that our motives were pure and that these extra problems and by-products that happen were not desired by us and were unintended. The reason we say this is because, otherwise, thinking differently means that we have to try to understand the full range of results and consequences for our actions. What we actually need to accomplish may be well beyond our initial goals. We need to be clear on what we will accomplish so there are no extra unintended consequences in addition to our multiple goals.
For instance, every project action and desired goal we attempt to achieve has a WIIFM (what's in it for me) set of consequences for each person on the project team. The lack of achieving these desired goals is often the result of not understanding the consequences (WIIFM) of accomplishing the project itself for the participants.
Therefore, progressive organizations set up Parallel Involvement Processes to ensure the involvement and contributions of all stakeholders. These key stakeholders can identify all of the unintended consequences and ensure that we have solutions to problems that are systems solutions with longer term sustainable solutions.
When working with these key stakeholders and asking for their input and views, it is important to give them both a guarantee and limitation if these are appropriate. The guarantee is that their views will be seriously considered, but that there is a limitation on their specific input as more input is being gathered from others. This is not a decision-making session, but an input and feedback session.
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State of the Art Systems Thinking Applications
The Law of Unintended Consequences
The Rubik’s Cube Effect of Common Unintended Systemic Consequences
A 21ST CENTURY SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH® TO COMPLEXITY
The Rubik’s Cube Effect is the Natural Way the World Works
 This is Systems Thinking Concept #5 and a law that states that the complexity of today’s world leads to unintended systemic consequences (usually negative) in just about everything we do in our life, play and work. Enrico Rubik, the developer of the Rubik’s Cube, invented it and then began playing with it. It took him a month to get it back together again with only a single color on each of the six sides.
Read more...
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