Leading in Ambiguity? Learn to See Systems and Observe How They Function—Seek a Wider View.

This post is the third and final in a three-part series of posts that discuss Simple habits for Complex Times: Powerful Practices for Leaders, by Jennifer Gravers Berger and Keith Johnston.

The three habits are: 

1. Ask different questions.
2. Take multiple perspectives.
3. Learn to see systems and observe how they function.

Today we look at the importance of learning to see systems and how they function.

You’ve heard of the saying, “He can’t see the forest for the trees.” If you were to take this saying literally, you might find yourself in a situation like this.

You’re hiking in the woods. As you walk down the trail, you find a tree blocking your path. You know you have to get past the tree, but it’s in your way. After contemplating the situation, you decide that if you’re going to move forward, you must cut down the tree.

So you hike back to your car. You drive home, go into your garage, and get your chain saw. You put the chain saw in the car, drive back to the parking area and carry the chainsaw along the trail until you find that tree. You proceed to cut it down. You then take the chainsaw back to the car and return on your hike. That is until you reach another tree that’s in the way! 

This scenario is more than a bit absurd. But sometimes middle leaders can expend as much energy, time, and effort to navigate their ambiguous setting as this hiker did. The big question is, “Why didn’t the hiker just step around the tree?” According to Jennifer Berger, it’s because the hiker didn’t maintain a wider and more systematize view of the present situation. 

“Leaders are best served when they get a wider, more systemic view of the present.”

Sometimes we can be so focused on the challenge before us that we miss the forest for the trees! But there is more to a forest than just the trees. When you get a wider view, you can begin to see the forest is also filled with paths! 

How do you get a wider view? Here’s are some things that Berger suggests. 

1. Try not to solve problems right away. Sometimes time is our friend. If the hiker would have paused for a moment and looked downward at the path, maybe they would have seen that there was a path around the tree—others had faced the same problem and simply walked around the tree.

2. Don’t always look for the best solution. Think of several solutions and try them out in a “small way.”  I remember a colleague who announced, with great fanfare, his every attempt to address a problem. It only drew attention to the failures, even though, eventually, he did solve the problem. Sometimes it’s better NOT to announce the solution until the problem is already solved.

Try small experiments, small moves, slight changes in direction. Sometimes small steps can make a big difference. In the case of the tree blocking the path, a small step right or left could have saved hours of time and labor. Of course, sometimes you’ll have to climb the tree to get a better view. But a least you took small steps before you determined the big climb was necessary. 

3. Attacking the “root” cause (no pun intended) may not be the answer. In this scenario, if the hiker wanted to attack the root cause, they would have gone home and put a shovel in the car! That too would have taken a lot of time and effort to, in essence, get the tree out of the way. But at what cost? A huge hole in the groud! Sometimes in our efforts as middle leaders to write the wrong, solve a problem and move forward, we can dig ourselves a hole that, though it might solve one problem, will create many others. If I may be so transparent, sometimes it’s not the middle leader’s job to solve the root problem but to workaround.

What does this mean for the middle leader? Leading in the middle of an organization can be like going on a hike in the forest. You know where you want to go, you know where the path leads, but often people, policies, personalities, and priorities get in the way of forwarding progress. It can be fun, but a lot of stuff can get in the way. When this happens, try not to solve problems right away. Spend some time tinkering at the periphery. Experiment with smaller steps. Get a wider view, and you can find the pathway through even the densest forest.