Fixes that fail: decommissioning

What starts out as a successful quick-win turns into a low-leverage intervention that causes more trouble than its original root cause.  With the advent of IaaS and SaaS the example used in "fixes that fail" seems a little dated, truth being I haven't had time to update it, however the central principles are still valid and very much applicable in our organisations (first published in 2009). 

Fixes that fail: Decommissioning from Systems Thinking IT



When I started looking at the world through models the penny dropped, the overwhelming feeling was "IT people must know about this". That was in 1994 and I've been banging on about it ever since.

The system archetypes are in control and it is very hard to do anything about it, but if we don't try, what does that make us? I talk about this in the conclusion of Sea of Systems "well at least I helped this one".

I explore this and other system archetypes in my eBook Sea of Systems, download it at my blog https://systemsthinkingit.blogspot.com.au

Gems from the deep "learning wisdom"

Here are 4 good learning habits 
I have found 
invaluable over 
the years

• Reflection — internal
• Self-inquiry — internal
• Feedback — external
• Surfacing — external

Reflection is when I spend quiet time mulling things over, trying to understand spheres of influence and other reasons why things turned out the way they did. 

Self-inquiry is when I try to understand my motivation in a particular situation, making a mental note of how my motivation influenced the outcome. 

Feedback is when I seek opinions from others, learning from people's colourful narratives and perspectives, upgrading my mental models and adjusting my approach.

Surfacing is when I use facilitation skills to learn more and go deeper than the symptoms of problems, usually with a group of people who experience similar issues.

I have found by using this combination of techniques I can make more impartial and better informed decisions or choices. 

Sometimes it's hard to find time in IT with back-to-back meetings, operational issues and impending deadlines—but trust me the small investment pays off.  

I explore these and other learning techniques in my eBook Sea of Systems, download it at my blog https://systemsthinkingit.blogspot.com.au




About — "gems from the deep" takes a quick dive into the more detailed and involved concepts explored in the eBooks Sea of Systems and Transparent Delivery (forthcoming).

Sea of Systems

The 2017 edition of Sea of Systems builds on the 2011 edition with enhanced and expanded explanations of Deming cycle, reflection, system archetypes, systemic mapping and systems thinking.





Sea of Systems by James Wood is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.  Based on a work at http://www.solonline.org.
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