Educators and learners alike have been experiencing everyday disruptions and will likely continue to do so over the next 10 years. Leaders at the district, state and federal levels have all been grappling with everyday disruptions.
This sort of environment of rapidly changing education systems at all levels requires quick decision-making. But too often those decisions can be made in isolation and fail to address deeper or ongoing challenges. However, systems thinking can be used as a critical leadership capability for long-term impact.
What is systems thinking?
From our glossary: Systems thinking is a set of theories, collaborative tools, language and mindsets that, in an education context, can help a district/organization collectively navigate the complex, interconnected pathways toward shared goals and aspirations. It supports deep understanding of barriers to transformative change and promotes equity and access for all stakeholders.
For more, read Looking Beneath the Surface to explore systems thinking theories, language, mindsets and tools to inform approaches to systems change.
How systems thinking changes leadership
For Andrew Withers, superintendent at Grass Valley School District, systems thinking helped him enter his role as superintendent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, “trying to maintain a sense of calm and logic and long-term focus while at the same point acknowledging very little is within our control,” with constant changes in society and in federal and state policy — some in big ways and some in small ways. But those changes can have big impact on a system, no matter how small. Before returning to in-person learning, Withers led the district to take some time to study and observe, then creating a framework to run their decisions through. Systems thinking also helped him lead the district in continuous quality improvement.
“What systems thinking has done for me is it really allowed me to be a more thoughtful and reflective leader,” said Withers. “The biggest value for me has been that it’s just felt natural. It isn’t a buzzword or something to do to impress someone; it’s just how good organizations and individuals go about evaluating their effectiveness and planning for the future. So it’s almost a mindset in many ways.”
Two recommendations for system leaders
Maybe you’re just getting started with systems thinking or maybe thinking back to your own experience getting started in using these tools and mindsets. Withers has some recommendations for people who are wanting to kind of take this learning journey themselves.
1. Avoid quick fixes
“Try to take a big approach and look at what systems thinking is, and then just pick a habit or a tool and implement it,” Withers says. Two he recommends are unintended consequences and avoiding quick fixes. “When I examine those two tools or mindsets, it helps me reflect back on other leadership opportunities when things maybe didn’t go as well, despite my best efforts, and how I might have had a time to pause and reflect before making critical key decisions to ensure it’s the right decision.”
Quick fix is a quick decision made in the moment, right here, right now, solving the immediate problem in front of you, because it can seem too pressing to sleep on. However, that quick fix will have a ripple effect. “There might be other things down the line that quick fix will have an impact on and maybe a significant negative impact or maybe not,” Withers explains. But before making that quick fix decision, Withers advises it’s important to “give yourself the opportunity to pause and consider the unintended consequence of taking or not taking action.”
By observing interconnections and seeing that when you make a decision, you recognize the ripple effects and consequences, both short- and long-term, for the rest of the people in your system and way that the system itself operates.
2. Have difficult discussions
As a mentor, Andy explains how he once had the quick-fix mentality and rehashes his poor decisions and the mindsets of good teams. “Good teams talk about difficult decisions, and good teams discuss and maybe even argue or have critical dialogue before a decision is made,” Withers says. “If you train not only yourself but your team to help you through those times, you often can avoid the quick-fix mentality. It’s like a crash diet versus an analysis of your health.”
We all only have a limited view of any system. And we have to engage in dialogue with people who have a different set of experiences and different perspectives on how that system is or isn’t working. So when we’re reflecting on those decisions we’ve made — whether they felt like they went well to us or not — getting those perspectives engaging in that dialogue, really trying to unpack how all of us are seeing and experiencing this system, is critical to that analysis and to the learning journey.
When engaging in critical dialogue, you’re honoring that perception as reality, Withers argues. “I thought it was successful and you did not, we are both ‘right’ with our opinion. And when we’re on the same team, we actually want that healthy discourse and dialogue. So I, who maybe thought it was successful, can understand why you don’t think it was.”
