Part III Starting a Systems Thinking Consulting Firm: What have we learned, What are we learning!
This is the third and final article in the series (1,2). Here I talk about our beginnings in becoming systems thinkers and modelers, how we demonstrated its applicability in our job roles, and what worked for us to build credibility in the market. I also touch upon the key tenets that I feel help one become a systems thinker.
Selling Systems Thinking
In my initial months, I thought of how to convince people in my organization, where I worked as a researcher till 2017, that systems thinking works and is useful. Should I intellectually demonstrate the superiority of this method, should I publish in a top journal, should I hold a training program, share papers & success stories or should I confront them? After trying a bit of everything, the real difference came about when I took responsibility to lead and deliver a funded project using systems thinking and modeling. This was not particularly easy. There was no team of trained modelers. But in our regular research jobs, this was a rare opportunity to apply systems thinking and modeling. I decided to take it.
An introductory two-day workshop was conducted where participants were made to learn to do simulations using system dynamics modeling (they made multiple models ending with a model of Easter Island). Towards the end of the workshop, a team was set up who were interested in this method, and my current business partner, Kabir Sharma, was the first one on board to join me as a co-modeler. He is a fast learner and was quick to come up to speed in learning stocks and flows, formulating equations, and getting on with the software. Our skills were complementary, I was more of the “feedback loops” thinker while he could take responsibility for the math and how it compared with other modeling methods. We both decided to embark on this journey of creating an urban model for an Indian city and in that process learn the modeling nuances together.
As we began the process of modeling, we developed self-confidence. As models emerged, qualitative and then quantitative, management also started feeling confident in our capabilities. This helped us get more time into the project. In the meanwhile, the team was churning, people leaving the organization, being reassigned to other projects, etc. In the end, we were half in number but we were working efficiently. We learned that a small team can still deliver a lot. In systems thinking we say that whole is more than the sum of the parts. We saw this in action.
As the project moved on and the simulation results started coming in, we grew in confidence. The biggest benefit we had was we knew what we were modeling and had a logical basis for it throughout. Rigorous testing of the model also gave us a lot of confidence that we were on the right track. This study then established us in the organization as the new kids on the block — the system dynamicists. We did not sell systems thinking but people bought it not because we convinced them but because we proved that it could be done and that it generated value through the results and the modeling process. Organizations are always interested in having a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). System Dynamics can give them that. This by far remains perhaps the only selling point that can attract new potential clients to systems thinking. But is it wise to sell it?
Collaborative Systems Thinking
After our maiden modeling work, we were approached by another department to develop a bioeconomic model that could capture the economics of land use and land change. This sounded like a complex study but we knew that if we had to make inroads then we have to take what comes our way, even if it sounds close to impossible. We decided to take on this assignment. This time our team size was two people.
This was an intense modeling project. We were kicked by the social-ecological complexity of the grassland system in the Banni landscape and found it a great fit for an application of system dynamics modeling. We were not afraid to involve local people in the modeling work and showed our model and its initial results to the local community. This was a particularly enriching experience as it helped us take the modeling world out of the urban offices into the rural landscapes of troubled lands and people. The response we got was overwhelming. We partnered with the local NGO and worked at their local research stations where we met other researchers doing their Ph.D. and some postdocs. This had all the right ingredients for making a collaborative, participatory modeling exercise.
Time was short so we had to be rapid in our approach. Ultimately, we managed to develop a simulation model and even published a paper in a journal. In this study, we learned the power of parameter estimation and how system dynamics often helps us ask the right questions and thereby discover data that was previously unavailable. The collaborative spirit of this project taught us that the success of system dynamics modeling lies in people coming together to share their mental models of the real world and we sharing the models back with them for their reflections. This way they then own the model and the process itself becomes an outcome as a result of their improved collective understanding of the system.
This project was a turning point of sort in our career. After its completion, we felt that such a short time was insufficient for doing justice to the local people. It required a longer time frame for developing a bottom-up model which could capture the social-ecological dynamics of the land use and land change, including capturing its effects on local livelihood. By now we had left our fulltime jobs and were on the lookout to develop a coalition that could come together to work long-term for developing a potential decision support system to be used for planning and local implementation. And we were successful in our endeavor of doing so by getting a multidisciplinary team and a funded project. This was our beginning of becoming independent in the field of systems thinking and modeling. These experiences were the foundations for us to go independent and eventually start our consulting firm.
What does it take to become a Systems Thinker?
Upon reflecting I think it is not a straightforward task to become a systems thinker & modeler, and then make a living out of it. I am still figuring out what it takes to become a systems thinker and when would one call himself/herself a systems thinker. There is no straightforward answer to this. So rather I am presenting a list of key tenets that might help one in becoming a systems thinker and an entrepreneur. This is a rather crude list and heavily biased through my experience and opinions. Feel free to disregard it after reading once if you feel something is not right.
Key tenets for becoming a systems thinker and modeler:
1. When you know that your model is only an approximation of reality but it can still be useful
2. When your motive is to collaborate and not out-compete stakeholders
3. When you want to seek convergence with other modeling methods and not prove they are inferior to system dynamics
4. When you are not in a rush to quickly grow your firm in scale and operations
5. When you want to build lasting relationships and not only work for high paying transactional assignments
6. When you want to go beyond just creating modeling products
7. When you embrace complexity and grow by sharing knowledge
8. When you purposefully try to listen to what others have to say
9. When you don’t marry your models and are open to changing them to make them fit for use
10. (Lastly) When you want to become a systems thinker and modeler not because others believe in it and are willing to pay you for it, but because you believe in it and see the value
By Mihir Mathur.
DESTA completes 4 years in April 2022 and these three articles are a reflection of our journey so far. Read Part I and Part II.
