How systems mapping helps your business to succeed
Making sure your business fits into our complex and changing world of interconnected and nested systems can be challenging. With the right methods, we can grow our confidence interacting with complex systems and discover the opportunities they bring. One of these methods is systems mapping. In this article, I discuss common challenges businesses face, that can be overcome with the help of systems maps.
Getting started
Every business starts with an idea. The challenge is to build the right system, to bring this idea into reality. The first step to bring ideas out of our head into reality is to put them on paper. From there, it becomes much easier to identify what else is needed and start building a system, instead of trying to hold on to complexity purely within our brain. That is exactly how we become overwhelmed. New businesses are started in two main ways: As an answer to a problem or need or based on a chance discovery or invention of a new technology or product. Systems mapping helps to overcome the challenges both startup types face.
Setting priorities
One of the biggest challenges when setting up a new business is choosing where to start. By breaking down, clustering and nesting tasks and showing how they influence each other, systems mapping helps to simplify the to-do list and allows to identify actions that have a cascading effect, making the following actions easier.
Knowing what you do not know
You will not be able to find the best fit for your business within a system, if you are unaware of important components of this system. Systems mapping helps to discover these knowledge gaps. The map can also indicate where this information can be found, as for example with specific stakeholders of the system. I use the Lego® Serious Play® method to gain access to stakeholder knowledge.
Understanding what causes the problem
Complex problems rarely have one “root cause”, instead they result from the interactions of multiple components. If we want to do more than just treat symptoms, we need to understand these interactions. Creating a map of the components and their interactions allows us to understand the behaviour of the system. Then we can start to plan interventions, changing or adding components and connections, to change the behaviour of the system.
Finding applications for an invention
Mapping an invention within a potential context helps to understand the function of the invention on a more abstract level. This abstraction allows to identify more possible applications for the invention.
Identifying the best solution
Throughout the ideation process, a systems map can be used to test the cascading effect of possible solutions or of an invention in different contexts. If we change one part of the system, how does that influence everything else? Do reinforcing loops support the desired change or are balancing loops cancelling out the effort to create change?
Cooperation
Establishing cooperative relationships is crucial to the success of any business, but it can be challenging to find the right partners and build lasting relationships.
Choosing which functions to include
When setting up a new business, we often have the urge to do everything ourselves, feeling that only then will it be exactly what we need. This attitude can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business. Often it is more efficient to specialise on a few functions and cooperate with other businesses for the rest. Systems mapping can be used to compare the efficiency of including versus outsourcing functions.
Communicating with stakeholders
A systems map can show the roles of all the stakeholders within the system. Gaining a better understanding of your stakeholders will allow you to communicate with them more effectively and establish cooperative relationships.
Finding opportunities for cooperation
Mapping your business will help you to identify potential interaction points for cooperation. It becomes even easier to find opportunities for cooperation, when other businesses within your system also share their maps. Like putting together pieces of a puzzle.
Being found by problem owners
Communicating the abstract function of an invention within a system, instead of an application example, makes it easier for problem owners to see how your solution could fit into their system.
Being found by solution owners
The systems map can also be used to communicate the specific functions you are missing to make your system work. This makes it easier for solution owners to identify a new way to apply their solution within your system.
Fitness
Just like species in nature, in order for a business to persist, it‘s strategy has to fit the systemic context. As the context changes, the strategy has to be adapted, in order to avoid strategic drift. When the strategy no longer matches the systemic context, it becomes continuously less effective and more and more resources need to be invested in order to support the sub-optimal strategy. Because it tends to be slow, strategic drift often goes unnoticed. It is therefore important to frequently reevaluate the strategy’s fit within the current system and reorganise the business accordingly. Or even better, setup the business in a way that allows it to continuously adapt to changing circumstances.
Being resource efficient
Resource efficiency is a combination of collecting, allocating and implementing resources efficiently. A systems map can be used to gain a clear overview of how resources are being collected, allocated and implemented, helping to identify inefficiencies. These can be inherent inefficiencies that have existed since the system has been set up or they can arise when the systemic context changes. Sometimes changes in the systemic context do not reduce the efficiency of the strategy, but offer opportunities to increase the efficiency. Some examples of changes in the systemic context are the rise of new technologies and materials, new cultural beliefs, climate change and ecosystem degradation. When inefficiencies have been identified, the systems map can be used to analyse how the business can be reorganised to work most efficiently within the current systemic context.
Part of the resources should be allocated to ensure the resilience of the business, allowing it to cope with disturbances and adapt to change. The systems map can also be used to identify risks and allocate resources strategically to be able to cope with the predicted disturbances.
Keeping employees engaged
A business is not a machine, with different components that can be programmed how to perform a specific task to tweak efficiency. Businesses are living systems that depend on people, with their own identity, beliefs, motivation and understanding of their role as part of the company. When the people within the business do not agree on the purpose of the business, do not understand the importance of their roles or feel like they can not carry out their task in the way that seems most efficient to them, the entire business suffers. In order to solve these issues, systems mapping can be combined with the Lego® Serious Play® method. With this approach, the people within the business can create a shared understanding of the identity of the business and their roles within it. In this article, you can read more about why I use the Lego® Serious Play® method to tackle complexity.
Closing resource loops
We have realised that as a species, we have to use our resources more efficiently, in order to ensure our survival. One important step, in which businesses play a big role, is the closing of resource loops. Systems maps allow to identify the loose ends of resource flows and reorganise them into loops.
Creating positive environmental and societal impact
As a species, our fitness depends on a healthy environment and society. Every business has an impact on environment and society. Systems mapping can be used to analyse this impact and develop strategies to achieve positive impact.
If you want to know how I help businesses to map their systems, you can read my article: My systems mapping process for businesses
