External Threats to the System

The threat of total system breakdown provides an opportunity for significant organizational learning. Margaret Wheatley provides us with suggested actions for learning that leaders can take in situations that threaten total organization failure.

1.   Engage the whole system. Only participation can save you.

2.   Keep expanding the system. Ask “Who else should be involved?”

3.   Create abundant information and circulate it through existing and new channels (dedicated Web sites or intranets).

4.   Develop simple reporting systems that can generate information quickly and broadcast it easily.

5.   Develop quality relationships as a top priority; trust is the greatest asset.

6.   Support collaboration; competition destroys capacity.

7.   Demolish boundaries and territories; push for openness everywhere.

8.   Focus on creating new, streamlined systems. There is no going back!

These suggestions (more like imperatives) offered in the context of potential large-scale system failure are relevant to any organization that has complex interdependencies within and between its internal and external communities—one that is faced with a problem that affects that total system: loss of a key leader; major loss of market share; core product failures; large revenue shifts; large cost shifts; significant new government regulations; or environmental catastrophes such as a fire, an earthquake, or a flood that suddenly destroys units of business operations.