What is Systems Thinking and why is it important for HR?

Ever been in a project and you’re waiting on someone to reply to your email with the data you’ve asked them to provide? Then you already know about dependencies, which is actually the basis of Systems Thinking. Everything is connected and problems rarely exist in isolation..

In the HR and People space you’ll have experienced this countless times whether you’ve realised it or not.

What is Systems Thinking?

Systems thinking is a way of understanding and managing complex situations by looking at the big picture. Instead of focusing on individual parts of a problem, systems thinking encourages us to see how those parts interact with one another to form a whole. It's like looking at the forest instead of just the trees.

Why Does Systems Thinking Matter?

By understanding how everything is connected, you can better identify the real root causes of problems and anticipate where issues might emerge. For example, when you’re in a recruiting team, you're connected to not only the several candidates applying for a role but also the hiring manager, interviewing team, authorised signatory for when it comes to offering a contract, the Reward team for establishing a fair-market package, the list goes on…

How to apply Systems Thinking?

There a 6 core principles to apply when using Systems Thinking to help you tackle problems through an interconnected lens:

1. Interconnectedness: All parts of a system are connected, and a change in one part will affect the others.

2. Feedback Loops: this where the output of a system re-enters the system at the start again. The result is that it influences further future outputs. Two types exist:

• Positive feedback loops, which amplify changes (like a snowball rolling down a hill)
• Negative feedback loops, which stabilise a system (like a thermostat maintaining room temperature).

Understanding which type of loop you have can help identify why certain patterns repeat or escalate within a system. For example, do employees who exhibit certain behaviours consistently get promoted?

3. Leverage Points: Leverage points are areas in a system where a small change can lead to a large improvement. You’ll often hear people refer to these as the “low hanging fruit” in a project. For example, improving communication between departments in a company might drastically improve overall efficiency.

4. Emergence: Emergence refers to the idea that a system’s behaviour is more than just the total of all of the individual components within it. I.e. it becomes something new or unique when all coupled together. New patterns, properties, or behaviours emerge from the interactions of the system's elements.

5. Holistic Perspective: This is required to see the system as a whole rather than just focusing on the individual component within it. Looking at specific details is crucially important but its also key to understand the behaviour of the whole system and what influences what.

6. Systems Mapping: Creating visual maps of systems, showing how the different connect, interact and influence each other. This can aid with pinpointing what exact areas need focus.

In Summary

For HR and People teams where so much of the work and processes involves other departments across a business, Systems Thinking can be a powerful means to understand what’s really going on and why. In turn helping you and your team to make better decisions.