Making Systems Thinking an Operating Principle

Bucky Fuller himself.

I am writing our Operating Principles and I’ve been musing on having Systems Thinking as one of our principles.

Dictionary definition:

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system’s constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems.

I’ve been thinking about this in three ways:

1. How our organisation acts as a system
2. How we can hire people who think like this.
3. How our Company is part of a larger system in the Beauty Industry

“A system can be more than the sum of its parts”

As individuals we are great, but as a team we are stronger.

I then remembered Buckminster Fuller talking about how Specialization as Slavery;

“Specialization is in fact only a fancy form of slavery wherein the ‘expert’ is fooled into accepting a slavery by making him feel that he in turn is a socially and culturally preferred — ergo, highly secure — lifelong position.”

What does he mean by this? My interpretation is that ultimately — if you can only do one thing — its dangerous. In his book “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” He talks about how only the Great Pirates have all the knowledge (The System) and their trusted subjects (king-stooges) would be specialists and bring him the knowledge. One guy for navigation, another for engineering etc. The Great Pirates would work on dividing the knowledge and conquering it, in order to stay alive and not get ambushed at sea. Secrecy was critical to survival. It was not a Open Source Sea.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love [Found on Shane Parrish Blog]

The problem is that eventually King Stooges are replaceable, and they can even become extinct. Extinction comes from specialisation. Classic case is Inbred or Pure Breed animals not developing enough genetic differentiation to withstand a disease, thus wiping out the whole species when one gets ill. An obvious modern case would be the idea of AI taking over your job because you’ve been doing one action for 20 years.

What does that mean for our company:

• We have proper documentation so when new developers join they can get stuck in quickly.
• We talk to each other about what we are working on and how it may affect our colleagues.
• Internal knowledge bases
• We check in with each other — on productivity and emotionally.
• We don’t work in silos and have cross communication for cross teams.
• We have 80/20 or 90/10 skills. (80pc being our actual role)
• Start implementing transparent OKRs.

What does that mean for hires:

So with this approach, Beautystack’s new hires ought to have 80/20 skills — 80pc technical to 20pc humanities/creative or vice versa with 80pc creative but with 20pc technical ability (or like 90/10). Like you could do someone’s job just little bit, or at the very least you have some knowledge or understanding in it. Humanities+tech is my fave combo. If you’re an engineer with an interest in philosophy or a Design grad who happens like like gaming, then this duality works well in our team.

Adapt your skill set or simply learn what others in your organisation do, to keep yourself razor sharp.

Another key point in Systems Thinking is awareness of how your actions affects others. Is that piece of work that should have finished last week blocking someone else work? Is the code you are committing going to adversely affect another codebase? What is the environmental and social impact of our business? I love Tarot Cards of Tech for probing questions like this.

But will it work?

A fellow founder was telling me how its easy to write a list of Company Values or Principles, but how do they actually live in your company? Whenever I write a principle, I think of initiatives in the business that could see it actualised.

How we aim to live this Principle:

• Daily Stand Ups — We know what everyone is working on
• Test Driven Development — When run automated tests as well as manual ones. But when new code is added, we run tests on the whole system
• Empathy — We lift our heads off our desks and have an awareness of what others are working on
• Lunch — Try this week to walk to lunch with someone you don’t work with often. See what you can learn.
• Hiring — We want experts but ones who can lift their eyes away from their laptops up to the bigger picture.
• OKRs — Once all the Team OKRs are in, we will do an alignment exercise to see where there are overlaps.

As with any doctrine of Company Culture, its up to the Founder, and the Founding Team to be guardians of the culture. Highlighting when someone is working in silo, not sharing information, not taking a Systems Thinking stance.

I guess I’ve always thought in a System approach way, as I’ve often referred to myself as a Citizen of a Cosmopolis. I see my role in society as small but critical. I believe that what I do will have an impact on others, where I choose to live, eat, shop has an impact on wider economics. I’m also interested in Macro/Micro approach. Can you look at the bigger picture while remaining focussed on your individual task at hand?

Beautystack itself is built on Systems Thinking. The word “EcoSystem” is often overused but in our original pitch deck we said we wanted to be at the heart of it. With our data and user relationships and proprietary knowledge of the industry, we aim to be the beating heart — in fact the brain — in the middle of the System. The Great Pirate.