Word salad.
I have been helping organisations understand strategy and systems for close to two decades now, and I think the biggest thing I have learned is that there is very little shared understanding of what people mean when they say “strategy” or “systems”.
The result is that these words have become synonyms for “important”, attached to every sales pitch and job title.
As someone who genuinely believes that the interconnections in how we work (our systems), hold the key to delivering a better future (our strategy), this causes me a few headaches.
So here is my attempt to take the word salad and, rather than “dumb it down”, “smarten it down”, so that the work I do becomes a little clearer.
“Smarten it down” is a Matt Church-ism. It recognises that you are smart, and that if I am trying to communicate something, it is on me to explain it well.
Strategy tells us where we are trying to go. Systems are how work comes together to get us there. A systems map helps us see that work clearly enough to make better decisions.
Strategy
Strategy is the long-term direction of an organisation.
A useful strategy makes clear:
Purpose: Why do we exist?
The game: What do we do? What does success look like? Where do we play?
People and players: Who is on the team? Who is it for? Who benefits? Who might lose out?
The form of a strategy does not matter as much as the choices it contains. A nicely printed document is cool — I have a couple on my shelf. It can be a symbol of commitment and a useful communication tool, but it is not the strategy itself.
In the same way, a cookbook is not a meal.
System
A system is how work fits together to transform inputs into outputs.
A useful way to understand a system includes:
Its purpose.
An understanding of the level of maturity needed for that system.
An acceptance that people who work within systems will usually see more complexity than people looking at them from outside.
Some systems are deliberately designed; others emerge over time. Some are productive and some are not. Understanding the purpose (why the system exists), alone will give you a great deal of information about what to do next.
It is a good place to start, and it puts you ahead, because a lot of people don’t start at all.
Systems map
A systems map is a visual representation of how work fits together.
A useful systems map shows:
The working parts of an organisation, from the perspective most useful for making decisions.
What flows into the system, how work transforms it, and what flows out.
The conditions that need to be present for those flows to work smoothly.
A shared picture of how work happens is always useful. It gives people a model of the real connections that get things done.
But when looking at a systems map, remember the old adage often attributed to statistician George Box: “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” The point is not to produce a perfect representation of reality; it is to create a useful approximation that helps people see, discuss, and improve the work.
A systems map should highlight not how we work, but how we work together.
