The Gensyn Client Experience Part 3 – Systems Thinking

Gensyn works as a trusted partner to accelerate the ability to adapt, grow, and thrive, no matter how complex the challenges faced by our clients. In this series, we are introducing the three interconnected approaches Gensyn brings to each engagement:

·       Collaborative Facilitation

·       Design Thinking

·       Systems Thinking

In Part 1 of this series, we shared how Collaborative Facilitation helps surface the wisdom already inside your organization and turn it into action, and in Part 2 we shared how Design Thinking helps create solutions that work in the real world.  Here we’ll share more about Systems Thinking.

What is Systems Thinking?

Systems Thinking views the different parts of a challenge or solution together, not as separate isolated elements. It acknowledges that parts of a system interact and influence each other. For us today, let’s use a very simple definition. Systems Thinking is seeing the whole system - how people and parts work together-and creating solutions that make a big difference.

Systems thinkers use a variety of methods, looking at concepts like these:

• Interconnectedness of parts

• Seeing the interconnected whole (a synthesis of interconnected parts)

• Feedback loops

• Cause and effect loops

• Emergent behavior

Dynamics and Relationships – Not Silos

The various parts of any system, by definition, work together, whether they are intended to or not. Looking at the bigger picture and connecting the dots to understand the relationship between things is a good starting point to examine a system. Once you know (or map) the parts and how they connect, you can start to understand the dynamics of those relationships.

The important phrase - “the system is behaving exactly as it was designed to” - is a central insight in systems thinking. It means that the results we’re seeing (even the negative ones) aren’t random mistakes but are a natural outcome of how the system’s structures, incentives, and feedback loops are set up. The system is doing what it was built (or allowed) to do.

For example, a company introduces performance-based bonuses to motivate employees and boost productivity. At first, results improve. But over time, people begin competing rather than collaborating, withholding information and resources to protect their own metrics. Trust erodes, teamwork suffers, and innovation slows. What began as a simple incentive to reward excellence ends up weakening the very system it was meant to strengthen.

Other examples we might see:

• If production keeps stalling, it’s may not just reflect operator error. it’s likely that the process, schedule, or metrics create conditions where breakdowns are inevitable.

• If innovation keeps getting delayed, it’s not due to lack of creativity. It may be that decision pathways, risk tolerance, or budgeting structures discourage experimentation.

• If complaints in a call center increase after setting new targets for average call handling time to improve efficiency, agents will begin rushing through calls to meet the metric, resolving fewer issues and increasing repeat calls. Customer satisfaction drops because the system rewards speed, not quality.

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When we are working within organizational silos, where choices and decisions are made without considering the larger whole or how it functions, things can zoom out of control, produce unintended consequences, stall, or even crash.

With Systems Thinking, we can connect the dots and begin to understand that outcomes are products of how a system is designed. To change the outcome, we must change the system and creates parts that work together as a whole. 

For All Stakeholders

Systems Thinking isn’t just the creation of some robotic-like mechanistic system. It very much considers the human side, and how the different stakeholders within the system interact. Systems Thinking understands how they are interconnected and related, and designs dynamics that work for them.

Another example:

A manufacturer installs automated monitoring systems on production lines to reduce downtime and improve efficiency. Initially, productivity rises as machines report issues faster. But over time, technicians begin relying solely on automated alerts and stop doing routine manual checks. Small maintenance issues that the sensors don’t detect early start to accumulate, leading to unexpected equipment failures and costly shutdowns. The investment designed to make the system more reliable unintentionally makes it more fragile, a classic example of technology improving parts of a system while weakening human oversight and adaptive capacity.

The Result

If you combine the dynamics and relationships of system parts and stakeholders, you arrive at the Systems Thinking definition we proposed - seeing the whole system - how people and parts work together and creating solutions that make a big difference.

In today’s complex world, systems thinking is the foundation for adaptive leaders to find clarity amid complexity. It enables organizations to learn, innovate, and respond effectively as conditions evolve, and most importantly, Systems Thinking will help design strategies that actually work in practice.

Stay tuned for more

So far, we covered Collaborative Facilitation, Design Thinking, and Systems Thinking. Part 4 will wrap up the series by discussing how these three elements come together to create a great experience for Gensyn clients.

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