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Forbes
26-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Strategic Organization Meets Systems Leadership
Thomas Lim is the Dean, Centre for Systems Leadership at SIM Academy. He is a Systems Thinking Practitioner & Author of Business leaders and CEOs today are facing mounting pressure to deliver both short-term results and long-term transformation. At the same time, they are being asked to build organizations that are agile, resilient and aligned from the C-suite to the front lines. To thrive in this environment, many leaders are turning to two powerful frameworks: strategic organization and systems leadership. While often discussed independently, these two disciplines are deeply complementary. Strategic organization focuses on designing the structure, roles, accountability and work systems of an organization to ensure effectiveness. Systems leadership focuses on the mindset, behaviors and processes required to lead amid complexity, mobilize stakeholders and enable learning across boundaries. Strategic Organization: Building The Conditions For Success From a systems thinking lens, the nested hierarchy of choices offers a clear framework for translating an organization's purpose and vision into coherent strategies, tactics and daily activities across the enterprise. When integrated with the design principles of strategic organization, it enables each layer of the organization to take ownership of decisions appropriate to their scope of responsibility—ranging from long-term vision-setting and strategic direction to tactical planning and frontline execution. This structured approach ensures that conceptual strategies are not just abstract ideas but are operationalized holistically throughout the organization. It promotes vertical alignment, reinforces accountability and empowers individuals to make decisions that are connected to a shared purpose, ultimately creating a more agile and focused organization anchored on clear accountability at every level of leadership. Take human resources, for example. In most companies, HR is seen as an enabler. But in a strategically organized company, HR becomes a systemic lever for transformation. Roles are defined not just by titles, but by accountabilities. Career progression is aligned with the complexity of work, and performance systems are designed around clarity of output, not just competencies. This changes the game from "managing people" to "managing systems of roles." Strategy In Action Example Consider a mid-to-large-sized manufacturing company undergoing a shift toward smart factory operations. Leadership has invested heavily in the Internet of Things (IoT), automation and analytics, but results are mixed. Frontline workers resist the change, middle managers struggle to bridge the technical and human elements, and the executive team is firefighting rather than leading. At the manager level, accountability is unclear due to the matrix reporting structure of this company. One way to redesign this for clarity is being specific to subordinates about the quantity and quality of output they are expected to deliver and how much time they have to deliver it. Another option is to clarify accountabilities using the QQT/R (quantity, quality, time, resources) tool developed by Elliott Jaques, a management scientist. Gerald Kraines, a proponent of strategic organization who recently served as a visiting lecturer at my company, wrote that "QQT/R creates unequivocal clarity regarding obligations." By presenting all four elements openly, it enables managers and team members to collaboratively explore, refine and agree upon each component with precision. These elements function both independently and in relation to one another, reflecting real-world limitations and opportunities while revealing any potential trade-offs involved. Accountability mapping can reveal where the company's execution bottlenecks lie. And at the heart of the transformation, a new system for decision rights, role expectations and time-span alignment can be implemented. The result? Resistance will decrease, productivity will increase and managers will have more time to lead rather than plug gaps. Leveraging a systems leadership model such as causal loops can reinforce a theory of change for the organization to move from the current reality toward its vision. Systems Leadership: Navigating Complexity So, how can leaders combine strategic organization and systems thinking in practical terms? It starts with diagnosis. Leaders need to move from a reactive mindset to one of systemic awareness. Instead of asking 'Who dropped the ball?' they must ask, 'What in the system allowed this problem to emerge?' Using relevant frameworks, all levels of an organization can be clear of their respective purpose, vision and strategies as each layer is nested within the layer above. Second, leaders need to design for learning. This means embedding double-loop learning into strategy reviews, building in feedback loops at multiple levels and using tools like the creative tension model to manage the gap between current reality and vision. Strategic organization helps formalize the "what": structure, role design and accountability. Systems thinking guides the "how": adaptation, sensemaking and emergent strategy. Third, leadership development must be reimagined. Instead of generic competency models, organizations should develop leaders who can lead systems and understand authority and roles. This means teaching managers how to design role architectures, align team charters and diagnose systemic causes of conflict. The levels of perspective framework developed by Dr. Daniel Kim, who's an advisor for my company, brings mental models to the surface for alignment so that organizations can create the right systemic structures. Conclusion: The Future Of Work Is Systemic As complexity increases, the leaders who will thrive are those who can simultaneously engineer the conditions for performance and cultivate the learning environment for growth. Strategic organization and systems leadership are not just frameworks—they are leadership imperatives. By embracing both, organizations can move from managing chaos to leading change, from reacting to building capacity, and from siloed excellence to enterprise-wide coherence. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Forbes
24-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Problem-Dissolving: Double-Loop Learning Drives Organizational Vision
Thomas Lim is the Dean, Centre for Systems Leadership at SIM Academy. He is a Systems Thinking Practitioner & Author of getty The learning organization has been a unifying concept in the field of organizational development, first introduced by Peter Senge in 1990. Its relevance has not diminished but instead is becoming more significant given the nature of business complexity. To deal with fundamental issues, simply problem-solving is insufficient; we need to work toward "problem-dissolving" so that the underlying issues are permanently resolved. Many companies fall into the trap of single-loop learning, where they fix immediate issues without questioning the underlying assumptions that led to those problems. While this method improves efficiency, it often fails to drive true transformation. Double-loop learning, on the other hand, challenges fundamental beliefs and creates the conditions for lasting organizational change. One of the most effective ways to apply double-loop learning is through the creative tension model, a framework that highlights the gap between the current reality and the desired vision. Instead of reacting to problems in isolation, organizations can use creative tension as a force to drive meaningful, systemic change. This concept is particularly relevant in digital transformation initiatives, where technology alone is not enough—leaders must align people, processes and mindsets to achieve sustainable success. To understand the difference between single-loop and double-loop learning, consider how organizations typically react to challenges. Single-loop learning is akin to adjusting a thermostat: It focuses on fixing errors within the existing system without questioning the system itself. For example, if an organization struggles with low productivity, it may introduce performance incentives or efficiency tools to address the issue. However, it does not question whether the way work is structured is fundamentally flawed. Double-loop learning, in contrast, goes deeper. It challenges the core assumptions behind decision-making and strategy. Instead of merely adjusting incentives, double-loop learning might lead leaders to reflect: Why are employees disengaged in the first place? Are our current management practices stifling creativity and innovation? Do we need to rethink our organizational structure to empower teams more effectively? To illustrate the power of double-loop learning, consider the case of a client company in the business of precision engineering. They embarked on a digital transformation journey to become a "smart factory." The company invested heavily in IoT sensors, AI-driven predictive maintenance and real-time production analytics. However, despite these technological advancements, the transformation was stagnant due to a lack of adoption from factory workers and middle management. The company's vision was clear: a fully digital, highly automated factory where AI and IoT would optimize production processes, minimize downtime and improve efficiency. However, the current reality was vastly different. Employees were resistant to automation, fearing job displacement. Middle managers were skeptical about integrating AI insights into decision-making, and data silos prevented seamless collaboration. At first, the company responded with single-loop learning strategies, such as providing additional training on AI tools to workers, introducing incentives for embracing automation and mandating the use of new analytics dashboards in production meetings. While these actions helped to some extent, they did not address the underlying mental models that were fueling resistance. Four months into the effort, the leadership team began to realize that their approach was fundamentally limited. They needed to go beyond surface-level problem-solving and rethink how they framed the transformation. Using double-loop learning, they began asking deeper questions that surfaced prevailing mental models to reexamine the assumptions about workforce dynamics that needed to be addressed for digital adoption to succeed. This led to a major shift in strategy. Aligning with the concept of creative tension meant that they could move from a reactive orientation to a more generative one. For this precision engineering company, this meant communicating a people-centered vision, empowering employers through structured upskilling and breaking down existing silos. In real terms, they emphasized how automation would reduce tedious, repetitive tasks, allowing workers to take on higher-value roles. Furthermore, a ground-up, peer-led mentorship program was launched, allowing experienced workers to coach their colleagues on using new technologies. Finally, the leadership established cross-functional teams that included factory workers, engineers and middle managers. At the heart of this transformation was creative tension: the gap between current reality and the envisioned smart factory. Rather than seeing this gap as a source of frustration, leaders used it to drive engagement and action. One could see that with single-loop learning, the gap between vision and reality led to resistance, frustration and disengagement. After double-loop learning, the same gap became a shared challenge that employees and leadership worked together to solve. By leveraging creative tension effectively, the company was able to turn resistance into motivation. Instead of enforcing change, they co-created it. Organizational transformation requires more than just solving problems—it demands rethinking the fundamental assumptions behind how work is done. Leaders looking to apply double-loop learning in their organizations must reframe their mental models to go beyond fixing symptoms and redefine the leadership's role in leading change, inspiring action connected to vision and fostering a learning organization culture. By integrating double-loop learning into management practice, businesses don't have to be stuck reacting to change; they can actively position themselves to shape it. Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
