Seeing Systems

Subtitled "Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life", Seeing Systems by Barry Oshry a fresh perspective to workplace dynamics, and is ideally suited to those who have lived in it for a while.

The central message of the book is that, despite our tendencies to explain the stresses at work in terms that are personal (and to a degree judgmental), it is more often the system which is shaping our experience.

To elaborate further, typically (without the benefit of reading this book) frustrations are explained in terms which judge the character, motivation and abilities of the people around us. And proposed solutions to those problems are often equally personal: fix the players; fire them; work around them, and so on.

But Mr. Oshry maintains that, over a long series of clinical and scientific sociological experiments at "The Power Lab", he's observed the same patterns repeated over and over again. He suggests the system, not the players, is what shapes the workplace experience. And that the system consists of many implied patterns of behavior (some of which are destructive and unpleasant, but acted out nonetheless). He also claims that few people can "see" the system they are participating in, and instead react to stimulus as if it is personally targeted at them (which tends to reinforce the patterns of behavior).

Mr. Oshry offers a solution to this: understand the systems, see patterns of behavior as the consequence of people playing their part in the system, don't take it personally and change the system if you want to change the results and/or experience for the players.

The message "don't take it personally" is one that resonated well with me. Sometimes it is hard to see beyond one's own emotions to figure out what's really going on. In that respect, I found this book very valuable.

From a leadership perspective, the book encourages managers at all levels of the organization to identify the root cause of frustrations and obstacles in the workplace, and offers some useful pointers on how to make things better.