Archetypes
Authority
Community
Intimacy
Learning
Mental Models
System
Systemic Structure
Systems Thinking
Teams
Theory, Method, Tool
Vision
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Some people think the "structure" of an organization is the organization chart.
Others think "structure" means the design of organizational work flow and processes.
But in systems thinking, the "structure" is the pattern of interrelationships among
key components of the system. That might include the hierarchy and process flows but
it also includes attitudes and perceptions, the quality of products, the ways in which
decisions are made, and hundreds of other factors.
Systemic structures are often invisible -- until someone points them out. For example,
at a large bank, whenever the "efficiency ratio" goes down two points, departments are
told to cut expenses and lay people off. But when bank employees are asked what the "efficiency
ratio" means, they typically say, "It's just a number we use. It doesn't affect anything."
If you ask yourself questions such as: "What happens if it changes?" you begin to see that every
element is part of one or more systemic structures. The word "structure" comes from the
Latin struere, "to build." But structures in systems are not necessarily built consciously.
They are built out of the choices people make consciously or unconsciously, over time.
(Richard Ross, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner)
Excerpted from The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.
Copyright 1994 by Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross,
and Bryan J. Smith. Reprinted with permission.
Related Terms: System and
Systems Thinking.
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