Systems Thinking for Nonprofits: Improving The Relationships
Happy Friday!
Thanks for joining me for this inaugural blog post. I’ll be writing each week to help nonprofit executives manage turnarounds and organizational change from a systems perspective.
Let's jump right in. Here’s a core idea of systems thinking, a methodology often used in nonprofit turnarounds and organizational change: If you want to improve a system, improving the relationships between the parts is more valuable than improving the parts themselves.
A system is anything with parts that interrelate to accomplish something: a strategy, a project, a s’more, a team, a duck, an alliance, or a cloud - each one can be seen as a system in the context of organizational change.
Improving the parts isn't pointless. But the performance of a system, especially in the context of a nonprofit organization, is determined by how its components interact. So, focusing on the connections can have a much bigger impact on system behavior.
Practically speaking, this means not rushing to diagnose a problem. Problems show up in the parts, but root causes rarely originate there.
Keep an eye out for:
Missing connections (e.g. marketing and fundraising in your nonprofit organization have no shared goals)
Inadequate connections (e.g. the communication between two parts is one-way when it should be two-way)
Unhealthy connections (e.g. low trust or unaddressed conflict)
What are you working to improve in your nonprofit organization? Try looking past the parts (where the problems tempt us to focus), and explore the relationships between the parts (where root causes hide). This systems thinking approach should lead you to a higher leverage point for change.
As a nonprofit turnaround consultant, I am here to help you navigate this process. Don't hesitate to reach out if you're looking for professional guidance in your organizational change journey.
Drew
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