Early in my career, I was charged with conducting a management training course declared mandatory by the CEO. Several managers who had expressed no intention of attending found themselves consulting their strategy manuals on how to meet the minimal standards for attendance without losing favor with the boss.
It was apparent early on that they were highly practiced at this game. Each day, they would show up an hour and a half late and disappear after the first break. They would reappear about thirty minutes before lunch, miss most of the afternoon session, and pop in about forty-five minutes before the end of the day. Even when they were present, their body language and mannerisms screamed, “What a bunch of rubbish!”
As a newbie, I could easily have become self-conscious wondering if I had lost the group before I even started. But after checking the obvious (my deodorant robustness, the number of class participants dozing, and mealtime leftovers deposited on my teeth) it didn’t appear I was faltering too badly. I was more relieved when my boss pointed out that among the management ranks our hooky-playing managers were the least capable when it came to managing people. I soon realized why; they saw the world through glasses that demanded a technical solution to every problem and couldn’t understand why they kept getting stuck with such difficult employees.
They didn’t get the point that not every problem is a technical one that can be solved by adjusting widget stampers, adding QC inspectors, or increasing vendor training for operators. Some problems require solutions through workplace social systems.
Consider a production facility that kept adding machines to reduce pressure on the more labor-intensive steps in the production process. In spite of their best efforts, the rework, scrap and inefficiencies persisted until we identified and overcame social system deficiencies that created bottlenecks and breakdowns. Among other changes, creating new ways of working together and distributing accountability to the whole team eliminated most of the major problems and doubled productivity freeing up technicians to carefully introduce additional machines into the production line without creating new crises.
In another case, a health care facility found it was losing money due to slow and incorrect billings. Physicians, nurses, and the billing office were constantly at war over the problem and each group blamed others. A new billing system did nothing but add more problems. When we educated the group on what was happening, trained them on how to diagnose the problem, and taught them how to develop and execute solutions, they were able to create a simple system for working together that dramatically improved the accuracy and timeliness of billings, and helped reduce the facility’s cash flow problems. Without first creating an effective social system solution the technical solutions had remained slippery.
We could cite more examples, but the point is that when we lose sight of the social systems inherent in every workplace, the costs to the business can be astounding. As explained by thought leader, William Pasmore, “Social systems, while at times problematic, are the only parts of organizations that can conceive and implement improvements in organizational processes…without them, organizations simply could not exist. Thus… we must define effectiveness in human as well as economic terms; and we must design organizations that tap the human resources that give life to collective endeavors.”
Trying it on for fit: Much like process mapping can describe how work actually flows versus how it is intended to flow, social systems mapping can provide helpful insights into how things really are versus how they seem to be with regard to how people work together in communications, interactions, accountabilities, interdependencies, etc. Try drawing a chart (or charts) much like a formal organizational chart to show who communicates with whom and about what; who doesn’t communicate with whom, and why not; who has influence with the group and who doesn’t (regardless of title); and what people are, and are not, willing to do for others, and why. Compare this chart to your organization chart and note the opportunities to improve the business by strengthening your social systems.
Meet with employees and conduct a discovery exercise to understand social systems in your organization. Here are some questions to ask: 1) What does a new person need to know about things in order to succeed? What do they know? 2) What gets in your way of doing a good job? 3) What stories are told to new-hires about the way things really are? 4) What is discussed among workers that would never get brought up with management? 5) If no supervisors showed up for work one day and there were no titles, which non-supervisory employees would take charge? 6) If you could change anything to make things work better here, what would it be?
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