Making Better Decisions Using Systems Thinking: How to stop firefighting, deal with root causes and deliver permanent solutions

This book provides a framework to help managers go beyond simply fighting fires every day, offering the tools to address the underlying causes of recurring problems and deliver long-term solutions.

The most obvious part of any problem is the pain it causes. The desire to end the pain and find a solution – any solution – that will make it go away now is usually so great that it blinds managers to the underlying systemic cause of the problem. The result is that we ‘solve’ the problem today and then it comes back again tomorrow or next week, again and again.

We are only addressing the symptoms but never understanding the cause – like picking the flower heads off weeds but not digging them out at the roots.

Schaveling and Bryan offer the insights and tools managers and leaders need to achieve a longer term and more effective approach by stepping back and analysing the system as a whole. And at the heart of any system are human beings – notoriously short-term and pain-averse creatures who will behave in whatever way minimises pain today even at the expense of pain tomorrow.

They show how to detect the behavior patterns that have become engrained in the organisation and which underlie complex situations so that root causes of problems can be identified. Once the system responsible for the problem is understood smarter decisions can be made to devise interventions that solve the core problem instead of wasting energy fighting the symptoms.

Dr. Jaap Schaveling (Dutch, 1956) is associate professor Leadership & Cooperation. He teaches Cooperation on team, organization and inter-organizational level, Social Psychology, Organizational Dynamics and Leadership. As a business coach he facilitates the management teams of various companies. His research work at this moment is about multiparty situations,  inter-team processes, innovative behavior and higher order skills. His mission is to co-create living teams and organizations i.e. to stimulate teams and organizations to develop into learning and sustainable bodies by strengthening certain disciplines, in particular personal mastery, social psychology, organizational dynamics and systems thinking.

Bill Bryan is a now-retired plant manager of large chemical plants. He studied chemistry at Leiden University and forged a career in the chemical industry with DSM. Starting in fundamental research and then moving onto big semi-industrial development projects, Bryan specialized in basic materials like solvents, melamine and caprolactam. From there he moved his career towards the production plants of ABS and PVC. Last years of career he spent as management consultant.