Month: November 2024

Set your creativity free

/ Pauline Roberts / Leave a comment

Visionary thinking and creative insight does not always come from being an academic. I have spoken and written many times about the creativity and insight of those applying systems thinking in their everyday work. They generally aren’t sat at computers writing journal articles, paying for them to be published or going through grueling peer review processes. They aren’t always the ones spending hours writing books or even blogs like this one. They are just getting on with things and generating incredible insights along the way. They are not just the thinkers or the creators. They are the ones who can turn abstract ideas into reality, a skill in its own league, the significance of which is often overlooked.

Sadly, no matter how much experience you have, how good you are at your craft, how many qualifications you have, if you do not enter into the archaic labyrinth that is academic publishing, you generally don’t exist and nor will you ever. You will never be quoted, referenced or referred to because it isn’t the done thing in academia to make reference to the work of a ‘non-academic’. So, as a practitioner what do you do? Keep your insights to yourself? Just use them for personal use and don’t share? I guess that would be the easy way but I do not think it is the right way. I think all of the systems practitioners out there who do not sit in an academic context need to have their insights, creativity and wise and sometimes daring application showcased.

I would love to see a ‘festival of systems practice’ that was not devised, designed, engineered, hosted or controlled by people with an academic or even a consultancy background. Consultants often collaborate with academics, which I discuss in the book ‘Crossing the Bridge’ (2023). Together they have dominance in the field. A festival of practice for internal agents is what is on my mind – those using systems thinking in the work place, usually without the title of ‘systems thinking practitioner’ and/ or without projects specifically badged as systems thinking. A festival that demonstrates their embodiment of systems thinking concepts and ideas. I can, however, already envisage the unintended consequences of showcasing such creative brilliance. I would, however, like to see it not just happen, but become the established norm with a new system of recognising new insights generated by the systems practitioner. Insights which do not have to be written up in an antiquated, cumbersome process of academic publishing.

Reference:

Roberts, P (2023) ‘Crossing the Bridge: A practitioner’s learning journey into systems thinking and Creating the Conditions for Change’ UK: Kindle direct publishing

This is my 100th blog on being a systems thinking practitioner and the insights the application and my journey have created.

Asserting boundaries

/ Pauline Roberts / Leave a comment

It’s interesting, isn’t it, the way people react to you asserting boundaries in your work? I don’t know about you but whenever I assert a boundary, people think I’m going crazy. I’m not. I’m just letting you know that you cannot manipulate my purpose to serve you instead of serving me.

Boundaries are absolutely essential in my work. Not least because without them I would become swamped by daily demands. It is bigger than that though, especially in relation to running my own business, creating my own approaches and taking my systems thinking into new arenas. I have quite strict boundaries in place already and I tend to implement new ones when I see an interconnected situation that might cause me some detriment in the future.

Then there are my values. I stand strongly in my values and live them. My boundaries are often linked to my values. This is not the act of someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. This is a business woman asserting boundaries based on her values. You may not understand them, but you don’t have to. They are my values and my decisions. The only person who needs to understand them is me.

My message here is that strong boundaries are sometimes necessary but when women in particular assert them, the reaction from others can be quite powerful. I suspect that men have much less challenge to their boundaries.

The only person who generally has an issue with your boundaries is a person trying to manipulate them for their own advantage. For any aspiring systems thinking business owners out there, do be aware of the boundaries you might have to set that others may never understand.

The introverted systems thinker

/ Pauline Roberts / 1 Comment

It’s Sunday morning and I’m in my favourite place – my office. It’s warm and cosy. I’m surrounded by personal artefacts that have great meaning. I have plants and ambient lighting. I have a window and I can see trees and bushes and I can hear the birds on my roof. I have my books and my notepads and pens. I have music and my computer and I am doing the things that give me most joy (alongside swimming, which is my other love) – reading, learning and writing. My creative brain is alive and the possibilities endless.

I have just watched a TED talk by Susan Cain (2012) on the power of introverts and my heart came alive at the words, ‘put yourself in the zone of stimulation that works for you’. This……this place and this time is my place of stimulation and I love it. I love my solitude where I can think and contemplate and create.

But I am also a little frustrated. I am frustrated because consistently and persistently people tell me to ‘go out more’ ‘do more’ ‘be with people more’. But these things do not bring me pleasure. I usually just spend my time looking at the time, wondering when I can escape. I’m not shy, I don’t fear social judgement. Nor am I antisocial. I don’t hate people and there is nothing wrong with me. I just prefer my own zone of stimulation – my comfortable places where I can quietly contemplate.

I am often expected by others to be loud, prominent, be the talker in the room and yes, at times, I have to be this person to be able to do my work. This is not, however, my zone of comfort. As a systems thinker, I am cognizant of embracing multiple perspectives. So, who is considering my perspective? Who is allowing the more introverted systems thinkers to shine? Who is asking them what they think? Not many, I can tell you. Instead the masses prefer those with a charismatic personality, the talkers who seem to be taking action. But action without contemplation, as Cain (2012) tells us is not always the best way and those with the biggest voices are not generally those who get the best result.

So what happens when an introvert creates something exciting or gets big results? Disbelief, that’s what. People didn’t see where it came from, so they can’t believe it. Sadly, this is a common thing to see in workplaces. The challenge I put forward today is, who is listening to the introverted systems thinkers? Who is appreciating their creativity and who is inviting them in, in a way that works for them, rather than it only working for you? Imagine how much you are missing if you don’t create the right conditions for a more diverse group of thinkers, whose creativity emerges in different ways.

Reference Cain, S. (2012) The power of introverts Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts?subtitle=en