A Systems Thinking Decision-Making Process: How to Avoid Burnt Toast (Management for Professionals)

✍ Scribed by Vincent P. Barabba

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 178
• Edition: 1st ed. 2022
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book illustrates how to access the right information for making the best decisions during turbulent times. It is written from an experienced-based perspective that is beneficial for those looking for the development and improvement of the decision-making process. The approach is centered on the author’s experience in developing and implementing effective and efficient approaches to decision-making in business and government. Based on those experiences, this book provides insights into how to improve the decision making process of your organization, whether it be large or small.

For decision makers and those providing market information for making decisions, this book provide guidelines for a framework which includes systems thinking. For those interested in change management and corporate governance, the book presents examples where it was done well and some examples where it was not and the ensuring consequences.

Praise for Systems Thinking Decision-Making Process…

"This is an absolutely incredible book by a distinguished practitioner. The range of knowledge and experience that Vince Barabba has had is astounding. I urge everyone who is interested in complex, messy problems to read this amazing book.”

--Ian I. Mitroff

“…Vince has masterfully blended the art of organizational respect with the science of data inquiry to drive change and realize strategic vision. A master storyteller, he does not just teach, his book brings his learnings to life in a meaningful way that if carefully listened to, can change the course of a career.”

-- Paul D'Alessandro

Principal, Health Industries, PwC US

“In his latest book, Vince Barabba integrates his vast knowledge from 50 years of dedicated work in both the public and private sectors in order to provide leaders with an actionable framework for radically improving how their organizations collect and use information to make the best decisions for all the wicked messes that now appear in our global village… This book can save your company from living in the dark with false assumptions about all your key stakeholders.”

-- Ralph H. Kilmann, Ph.D.

CEO, Kilmann Diagnostics

Co-Author, The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)

"Absorbing just a few of the many smart ideas in this book will make you a better leader and decision maker. Thinking systemically about how the hard-earned lessons from Vince Barabba’s brilliant career apply to your enterprise could make you a great one."

― Chunka Mui

Co-Author, A Brief History of a Perfect Future and Billion Dollar Lessons

“…if you are interested in ‘thinking in systems,’ this book is for you. The ‘On Star’ story demonstrates to you how the initial product-centered thinking was proselytized to ‘thinking in systems’."

-- John Pourdehnad

Visiting Professor, IESE Business School and Faulty of Systems Leadership, Thomas Jefferson University

“In writing Systems Thinking Decision-Making Process: How to Avoid Burnt Toast, Vince Barabba is addressing the limits of knowledge management systems which enable ‘organizations as usual’ to share best practices on how to scrape toast faster and cheaper… The examples shared by Vince, from his first-hand experiences in corporate America or his services as a marketing consultant, contribute invaluable clarity to his goal of providing a “sketch of an Inquiry Center Learning and Support System” for those with the ambition to lead efforts to work smarter, not harder, firmly against the grain of ‘organizations as usual’…”

-- Bill Bellows, Ph.D.,

President, InThinking Services

Adjunct Professor, California State University, Northridge and Southern Utah University

Advisory Council Member and Former Deputy Director, The W. Edwards Deming Institute®

“In his ‘last book’, Vince weaves the experiences and learning of a lifetime into whole cloth of insight and wisdom. He helps us to find relevant information from a rapidly changing world and apply it to making good decisions. This is a masterpiece of knowledge presented in a very entertaining way.”

-- Carl Spetzler

Chairman, Strategic Decisions Group International LLC

“This is a truly inspiring and mind changing book directly relevant for our times… Vince has shown through his remarkable work that business and government are a force for good when leaders think long term, work with, not against nature, and use their influence and resources for the many, not the few…”

-- Osvald Bjelland

Founder and President, Xynteo

Founder, The Performance Theatre Foundation

✦ Table of Contents

Introduction: What Led to the Writing of This Book
List of Endorsements
About This Book
Part I: How I Learned to Access the Right Information for Making the Best Decisions During Complex Conditions
Part II: Based on Those Experiences Here is What You Need to Design and Implement an Inquiry Center for Your Enterprise
Contents
About the Author
Part I: How I Learned to Access the Right Information for Making the Best Decisions During Complex Conditions
1: An Uncertain and More Complex Environment Requires You Learn from Your Decisions: Question the Known and Seek Answers to the Unknown
The Importance of Learning from the “Avoid Burnt Toast” Thinking of Edwards Deming
Addressing Edward Deming’s Concern About Burnt Toast
What Senator John Tower Learned From “Uncomfortable” Data that Contributed to His Re-election
Make Sure You Fully Understand the Problem Before You Try to Fix It!
2: How the Journey to Improved Decision-Making Started with My Introduction to the Silo Problem and the Importance of Understanding Both Sides of a Story
Learning to Question What Appeared to Be True by Hearing Both Sides of the Story
There Is, of Course, Another Side to Almost Any Story
3: What Was Learned by Supporting and Making Decisions During Local and National Political Campaigns
I Gained Insight Even Though the Candidate in My First Political Campaign Lost
Decision Time
The First Campaign Outside of California Using New Campaign Techniques
When Attempting to Reach a Group of Very Influential People, Try Something Different!
An Interesting Insight into a Future President
Evolving from Datamatics to Decision-Making Information
Practitioners and Academics: Benefits of a Shared Learning Experience in the Real World
Electronic Hillsides
A Glimpse of the Possibilities and a Hope for Future Electronic Hillsides
4: My First Government Job: Getting to the Census Bureau: An Important Personal Decision
The Confirmation Process
An Introduction to a New Way of Thinking
A Valuable Lesson Learned
Addressing Racial Disparity
Another Interaction with Nelson Rockefeller
Making Effective Use of Information
Time to Move On…
5: My First Job in the Private Sector – Xerox
How We Got Senior Leadership to Focus on What to Do with the Information Instead of Arguing Over the Accuracy of Something They Did Not Want to Hear
Make Sure Those Who Will Allocate Resources Are Involved in the Research Project’s Design
An Introduction to Sophisticated (and Useful) Market Models
6: My Second Job in Government: Back to the Bureau
Another Confirmation Hearing
The Benefits of Bobby Seale’s Advice to Make Sure Credible People Were Selected to Our Advisory Committees
A Little Help from a Junior High School Friend
Anticipating and Preparing for Legal arguments
The Importance of Being Neither Arbitrary nor Capricious
Thanks to Justice Thurgood Marshall, the Count Was Finally Delivered… and on Time!
Sometimes It Takes a Long Time for the ‘Truth’ to Prevail
7: My Second Job in the Private Sector: Getting to Kodak on My Way to General Motors
An Example That Shows the Real Value of Knowledge Creation Is in Its Use and Not Its Collection
Getting Behind the Silver Curtain
The Appropriate Use of Mathematically Based Models
The Genesis of Barabba’s Law: “Never Say, the Model Says”
Conducting a Strategic Assessment of Possible Changes to Customer Behavior and Market Conditions
How Strongly Held Positions Can Affect Response to a Survey’s Findings
An Unexpected Request Led to My Joining General Motors
8: My Final Job in the Private Sector: How Earlier Involvement in the GM Decision-Making Process Led to More Effective Use of Market Research
Traveling 70 Miles from Flint, Michigan, to Detroit, in 24 Years
How I Got from Kodak to GM
Getting Started and Uncovering Some Startling History
An Indication of Predisposed Positions That Would Have to Be Addressed
Thinking About a GM Decision Loom
Weaver’s 1932 Customers Drawing and the Mid-1950s Volkswagen Transporter
The Need to Regain Weaver’s Lost Legacy
Meeting Harvey Bell: Getting Behind GM’s Version of Kodak’s Silver Curtain
Decision-Makers and Those Responsible for Innovation and Design Must Engage in Active Listening
Laying the Groundwork: Changing How GM Developed and Introduced New Products
The First Strategic Initiative: Vehicle Development
The Dialogue Decision Process
Present Findings in the Form Preferred by Decision-Makers
Single and Double-Loop Learning
What the Midsized Car Program Did for GM
Double Loop Learning
The 2002 Truck Program
The Best Corvette Yet
Beginning to Align Imagination and Knowledge
Understand the Thinking Process of Those Who Use Your Information
An Example of a Design Process Influenced by an Involved Market-Based Decision-Making Process
Cadillac Escala Concept Vehicle
Thinking Metaphorically
A Visualization of a Book
Working for Two Bosses in 1992
Inviting Peter Drucker Back to GM
Time to Step Back and Think About the Future
Testing the Water with an External Review
The First Prototype: OnStar: Sometimes the Process of Creatively Gathering and Presenting Findings Reveals an Unarticulated Need, and the Possibility of Golden Brown Toast
An Introduction to the Digital World
And the Ideas Began to Be Implemented
Avoiding Burnt Toast
A Glimpse of Golden Brown Toast
The Second Prototype: MyProductAdvisor
Applying Buck Weaver’s Principles in the Twenty-First Century
Getting from Idea to Effective Implementation of the Idea Is Not Always Easy
Avoiding Burnt Toast: AutoChoiceAdvisor.com Becomes MyProductAdvisor.com
Reflecting on the Results of an Interesting Career
Part II: Based on those Experiences Here is What You Need to Design and Implement an Inquiry Center for Your Enterprise
9: Using Systems Thinking to Create an Experienced-Based Decision Process
The Benefit of a Broad View of Public and Private Experiences
An Array of Possible Operating Designs Positioned Along a Continuum of the Past “Simple/Certain” Environment to a Future “Complex/Uncertain” Environment We Are Facing Today
Make-and-Sell
Sense-and-Respond
Anticipate-and-Lead
It Is About Choosing the Right Combination of One Design and Another and Not Selecting One Design or Another
Today’s Successful Business Design Could Fail for You Tomorrow
10: Keep an Open Mind, Think Systemically, and Encourage Transparency
The ABC Company: A Conceptual Story Of How An Enterprise Can Create Change
11: Encourage Learning
Prior to Making a Decision, Surface and Make Explicit the Critical Assumptions
First, Identify the Stakeholders
Next, Conduct a Session to Surface and Challenge the Importance and Plausibility of the Surfaced Assumption
After Making a Decision, Learn from your Decisions—Particularly the Mistakes—and Improve the Process
Addressing a Problem Systemically, Creating a Whole that Was Greater than the Sum of Its Parts by Identifying and Understanding the Positive and Negative Impact of the Interaction of the Parts
It Had to Be a “Total” Team Effort
Identifying What Was Thought to Be a Successful Sales Program Was Actually the Cause of the Problem
It Was a Functional Silo Problem
12: The Relationship Between Data and Wisdom
Thinking Systemically: Value Lies Not Solely in Developing and Understanding a Hierarchical Structure of the Elements but Also in Improving Their Interactions in an Attempt to Find Meaning Relative to the Issue Being Addressed
The Lens of Learning
13: Based on Good and Bad Experiences, A Beginning Discussion of the Potential Decision-Making Framework from Which Lessons Can Be Learned and Burnt Toast Can Be Avoided
The Need to Insert Learning into the Decision-Making Process
How Your Enterprise Can Make Better Decisions and Learn from Mistakes by Designing and Inquiry System
Decision Record
Decision Makers
Strategic Context
Assumptions on Which Expected Outcomes Are Based
Environmental Scanning
Implementation
14: To Illustrate How a Decision Process Should Work, Let’s Examine How an Inquiry Center with a Learning and Adaptation Approach Might Have Helped Kodak Take Advantage of a Missed Opportunity and Avoid Its Eventual Fall into Bankruptcy
Kodak’s Missed Opportunity
Acquisition of Other Enterprises
Employee Acquisition and Promotions
15: Developing the Design and Implementation of an Inquiry Center That Contributes to the Ability to Avoid Burnt Toast
The Design Elements of Learning and Adaptation Support System
Introducing the Decision Record to the Learning Process
Uses of a Decision Record That Led to Saving Lives
The Potential Benefits of an Inquiry Center
Not a Conclusion, but a Beginning
16: The Benefit of Leadership’s Improved Thinking and Decision-Making that Overcame the Desire of Some to Focus Exclusively on the Existing Business
GM Epilogue: An Opportunity That Was Delayed at Great Cost—A Retired Employee’s Perspective
The Price of Not Positively Interacting with the Containing System
Unfortunately, a Zone of Discomfort Delayed the Introduction of this Potentially New Form of Income
Important Differences Between Ford’s Experience and Our Strategy
A Very Early Warning Not About the GM as a Business, But the GM’s Public Perception
“What Is GOOD for General Motors is Good for the Country”
“What Is Good for the Country Is good for General Motors”
The Need to Overcome Misinformation About General Motors
A Suggestion for the “New GM”
Sense and Respond
Anticipate and Lead
The Need to Continue Developing a Positive Image
Emerging into the New General Motors (Fig. 16.3)
A Reflection
In Summary
Index