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Leading More Effectively Through Systems Thinking

Jenaha Hochhalter

COML 504 B1: Organizational Communication

November 7, 2022
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Leading More Effectively Through Systems Thinking

The organization I work for has undergone a lot of changes lately. Among these changes was a

shuffling of roughly half of our associates to new teams under the leadership of different managers. I

received nine new associates to my team of direct reports.

I am not new to Conrad and Poole’s (2012) systems theory having explored it last session during

the COML 595 Theorizing Communications course. The principles of system thinking gave me some

inclination of how to support this newly forming team system. Conrad and Poole use baking a cake as a

metaphor illustrating how the “whole [of an organization] is more than the sum of its parts” (Conrad &

Poole, 2012, p. 35). To similarly employ a metaphor: my team is a loaf of bread that is still in the proving

stage. I was prepared for some insecurity surrounding sufficient kneading, along with some impatient

anticipation as I watched my team rise to its new form. I was not prepared, however, for one of my new

associates to seemingly choose to upset the environment at this crucial phase of the team’s

development.

In a recent standup – a recurring weekly meeting I hold with my direct reports – a new associate

to my team asked a question centered on a well-established hot-button topic based on hearsay “a friend

on another team” communicated to her. Even in our virtual meeting space, the tension and anxiety

became palpable. My team found this information extremely unsettling; to be honest, so did I. I was

caught completely off guard not having been informed of the new developments her question revealed.

I met the question as tactfully as I could, promising my team I would ascertain additional context and

follow up to clarify, but I knew this would not be the end of the issue. Down’s and Adrian (2004) point

out that “in the absence of reliable information, people make assumptions about the organization and

why things happen as they do…They blame their supervisors for not keeping them informed,” causing

strong resentments (p. 13). I was terrified this would happen to me. The associate’s act of asking her
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question was simple, but the potential for long-term disfunction within my team-system seemed a likely

outcome if I did not respond quickly and strategically. I suddenly found myself amid a complex upset to

our team’s newly-forming system; a situation I had not yet navigated as a people-manager.

Several relationships were at stake and my immediate actions would determine the nature of

these relationships moving forward. Conrad and Poole explain this way:

The types of relationships that hold the system together may vary depending on the nature of

the components. If the components are individuals, then the relationships among them include

authority (who reports to whom), communication (who talks to whom about what), work roles

(who works with whom and what they do), and interpersonal relationships (who is friends with

whom). (2012, p.35)

Approaching this situation with an awareness of systems theory allowed me to address its

complexity more effectively. The principles of systems thinking showed me that “the variables [of a

system] can be defined independently of one another, but their influence is due to how they interact

with each other in the system… the variables act as a set, and if the organization is altered to introduce

another variable the entire system changes its character” (Conrad & Poole, 2012 p. 36). I was concerned

that I would lose the ability to form a healthy, well-functioning team system. I also recognized the

necessity that I act quickly to ensure an environment of Safe-space through a zero-tolerance policy for

the spreading of misinformation and inflammatory gossip. It was important deal fairly with the inciting

associate; after all she had just been required to leave the previous team that she’d been with for over

two years and had become her home-system within the organization. I could only imagine that she was

experiencing fear and potentially navigating through stages of grief over the loss of her previous team.

While these factors do not excuse her behavior, they may be the levers that motivated it.
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The principle of systems thinking that recognizes the complexity of cause-effect relationships

offers this perspective: “Because all the parts of a system are interconnected, it is not possible to find a

single simple cause for events or problems in the system” (Conrad & Poole, 2012, p. 36). In this case, the

cause of my team’s issue was evident, but knowing how to respond effectively was far from simple. I

knew I needed to confront the associate, and that the conversation would need to walk a delicate line of

both respecting and establishing trust, but also conveying the severity of the circumstances.

In preparation for this conversation, I found that exploring the suprasystems and subsystems at

play to be extremely helpful. The associate’s tenure gave her an intimate understanding of how the

suprasystems of the Org function. The inflammatory subject of her inquiry was a long-time, well-

established pain point among associates there. It is extremely unlikely that she was unaware of the

reaction her teammates would have to her inquiry. I was also informed by her previous manager, that

prior to joining my team, she was part of a meddlesome subsystem. I was told that this associate was

very high performing in her work but was also part of a small social clique known to enjoy the sport of

gossip. One of the benefits of this organizational rearrangement was to separate each of the members

of this group with the hopes of deterring this behavior. With this understanding of her history within the

organization, by hope was to offer her a supportive environment where she would opt for healthier uses

of her social energies.

I am grateful that I was able to prepare for the conversation with this associate by utilizing the

principles of systems thinking. These principles allowed me to understand the issue from a variety of

perspectives which served to inform my empathy. They also revealed several access points through

which to address and stave off worsening of the issue within the team-system. The conversation was

uncomfortable, but I know that associate and I are much better for having it; and my team is much

stronger for having overcome this obstacle.

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References

Conrad, C. R., & Poole, M. S. (2012). Strategic organizational communication: In a global economy (7th

ed). Wiley-Blackwell.

Downs, C. W., Adrian, A. D., & Downs, C. W. (2004). Assessing organizational communication: Strategic

communication audits. Guilford Press.