The Team as a System
University-level dynamics requires moving from “linear” thinking (A causes B) to “systemic” thinking (A affects B which loops back to A).
1. Basic System Dynamics
- Feedback Loops:
- Reinforcing (+): Growth or decline that accelerates (e.g., trust breeds transparency, which breeds more trust).
- Balancing (-): Stability-seeking (e.g., as the team works faster, technical debt increases, eventually slowing them back down).
- Delays: The time between an action and its consequence (e.g., hiring a new person actually slows a team down for weeks before productivity increases - Brook’s Law).
2. Common System Archetypes
- Fixes that Backfire: A quick fix (e.g., working overtime to hit a deadline) has an immediate positive result but a long-term negative consequence (burnout, bugs) that makes the original problem worse.
- Shifting the Burden: Using a “crutch” (e.g., a specific hero developer fixing every bug) rather than fundamentally improving the team’s skillset.
3. The Fifth Discipline (Peter Senge)
A “Learning Organization” requires five disciplines:
- Personal Mastery: Continuous individual growth.
- Mental Models: Surfacing and challenging our internal maps of the world.
- Shared Vision: A genuine commitment to a common future.
- Team Learning: Collective intelligence that exceeds individual IQ.
- Systems Thinking: The “cornerstone” that integrates the other four.
High-Leverage Interventions
In systems, small changes in the right place can lead to significant, lasting improvements.
- The Information Flow: Often, the bottleneck isn’t “effort,” but the speed and quality of information (who knows what, and when?).
- The Reward Structure: If you reward individual performance but expect team collaboration, you have a systemic conflict. Focus on rewarding team outcomes.