Competency 13

Use the language and tools of systems thinking.

Educational leaders must have the ability to:

• Understand that educational institutions are complex organizations and form complex systems.
• Create ways to foster shared vision through personal contact and communication.
• Realize that systems are built on beliefs and assumptions.
• Examine the patterns of behavior, occurrences, or trends that are formed by events over time and ask questions and seek to understand and influence the systemic structures that support patterns and trends.

Effective educational leaders are aware that their institutions are complex organizations and form complex systems.  "Every educational practice is a system" (Senge, et al., p. 78). Systems typically interact to form larger systems that have a common purpose.

What is a system? "In the most basic sense, a system is any group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent parts that form a complex and unified whole that has a specific purpose….Without such interdependencies, we have just a collection of parts, not a system" (Kim, 1999, p. 2).

Educational leaders with systems thinking skills are better able to increase their awareness of the system's purpose and structure, their understanding of the system, and their ability to influence and shape the design of the system. Any system with which a person interacts includes the person; the person becomes part of the system. This means that the way faculty and educational leaders act and think helps to define the system itself. "The nature of a system includes the perception with which you, the observer, cause the system to stand together" (Senge, et al., p. 78).

Senge (1994) further explains that "our organizations work the way they work, ultimately, because of how we think and how we interact. Only by changing how we think can we change deeply embedded policies and practices. Only by changing how we interact can shared visions, shared understanding, and new capacities for coordinated action be established" (p. xiv).

Effective educational leaders recognize that for their institutions to achieve better results, practices, structures, programs, and policies need to continuously evolve and grow through ongoing evaluation. They also know that success will be elusive unless the thinking of the people who are part of the system also undergoes a continuous cycle of reflection, learning, and growth.

Effective educational leaders go beyond the pressures of daily events to examine the patterns of behavior or occurrences that are formed by events over time, or the trends that have developed. As systemic structures are uncovered that support patterns and trends, the educational leader must question what it is about their thinking and the thinking of all constituents that enables the structures to remain in place, even when results are not those desired or intended (Senge, et al., p. 80).
In addition to systems thinking, Senge (1994) identifies four disciplines that contribute to an organization's ability to learn and change: personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning.

Personal Mastery

Leaders are aware of the current reality, but also imagine a future reality to which they aspire. In practicing the lifelong process of personal mastery, leaders continue to reflect on a personal vision, to accurately define current reality, and work to bridge the gap between the two. Leaders go beyond knowing what they want: they are aware of how they frame choices and consciously make choices that lead to their vision. (Senge, et al.)

Mental Models

Mental models inform thinking as "the beliefs and assumptions we hold about how the world works" (Kim, 1999, p. 5). Leaders realize that systems are built on beliefs and assumptions. They know that to the extent they are unaware of these beliefs and assumptions, the ability to change patterns of behavior, or trends­-such as static student achievement-is very limited.

Shared Vision

Leaders create ways to foster shared vision through personal contact and communication. They understand that shared vision means to "build a sense of commitment together" by "bringing … disparate aspirations into alignment around the things people have in common" (Senge, et al., p. 72). They know that without a shared vision, "there is no way for a school to articulate its sense of purpose" (p. 72). Educational leaders recognize that "people are able to connect wholeheartedly to a higher organizational vision only when they can see how it is aligned with the things they personally care about most deeply and passionately" (Hutchens, 2000, p. 66).

Systems thinking, then, is a set of skills and dispositions that enable educational leaders to more effectively and proactively guide improvement in their institutions by learning to examine and question assumptions, work collaboratively as teams toward a shared vision, and understand the behavior and characteristics of living systems.

References

Hutchens, D. (2000). The lemming dilemma: Living with purpose, leading with vision. Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications, Inc.

Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001). How the way we talk can change the way we work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kim, D. H. (1999). Introduction to systems thinking. Waltham, MA: Pegasus Communications, Inc.

Senge, P. M. (1994). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency/Doubleday.

Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., & Kleiner, A. (2000). Schools that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education. New York: Doubleday/Currency