More Than Meets the Eye
Board Management Articles
By Frank Martinelli
Systems thinking is a way to see beyond isolated events to the deeper patterns, connections and root causes that explain many of the problems that confront us in our organizations and communities. The systems approach to management is a highly effective method for helping leaders understand the relationships that shape the environment in which their organization operates. It provides Outdoor Ministry leaders with an fresh understanding of relationships between our underlying assumptions about the world, the actions we take based on these assumptions and the consequences of these actions - both intended and unintended. Furthermore, systems thinking provides a range of tools and techniques for leaders who want to try out the approach. In this and future articles, we will discuss these some of these systems thinking tools with application examples from the Outdoor Ministry world.
In this article, we will showcase another powerful systems thinking tool - causal loop diagrams - to address the challenge of increasing board involvement board in fund-raising. Causal loop diagrams capture how variables in a system are interrelated. A causal loop diagram takes the form of a closed loop that depicts cause-and-effect linkages. Causal loop diagrams consist of arrows connecting variables (things that change over time) in a way that shows how one variable affects another.
This tool builds upon some of the key concepts of systems thinking which were presented in the October 2000 and February 2001 training conferences:
- The parts of a system (problem) don't exist in isolation.
- Each part affects, and is affected by, other parts of the system (the principle of feedback).
- With deeper understanding of how the parts are interrelated, we are then able to look for leverage points -- places in the system where our actions can have the greatest positive effect.
John Sibley, a systems thinking consultant,0 has devised a simple process for creating a causal loop diagram to better understand problems facing an organization. Our example is based on work done by Outdoor Ministry leaders who participated in the October 2000 training conference. Lets go through Sibley’s five steps:
Step one. Identify the problem
. In our example, the problem that the group identified was lack of board involvement in fund-raising.
Step two. Sense a story. Listen to the story
. The group first discussed people's experience of the problem and, in this early conversation, began to identify elements and aspects of the problem.
Step three. Identify the "characters" in the story. What are the variables or factors that seemed to capture the problem? Try to begin to tell the story.
The group then brainstormed a list variables or factors:
- Board members don't know how to raise funds with the fear of failure if they try.
- Some individuals may lack experience of being on a board.
- Sometimes the staff is waiting for the board to give them permission to take action or to do it themselves.
- Staff expectations of the board are sometimes not made clear.
- Lack of clarity regarding the roles of board and staff in fund-raising.
- Boards tend to focus on expense side instead of the income side of the budget.
- Peer accountability doesn't seem to be operating within the board.
- Within the church we are not talking about personal stewardship and giving enough.
- Some board members are unaware of what it takes to run a camp today and level of funding required.
- Is our staff doing a good job of modeling stewardship?
- Lack of ownership on the part of the board -- who owns the problem of fund-raising?
- Faulty board recruitment and orientation
- Sometimes not reading information sent to them resulting in incomplete communication regarding fund-raising needs.
After identifying the initial list of factors, the group settled on the following critical themes:
- Lack of role clarity and expectations regarding fund-raising.
- Lack of board commitment and sense of ownership for the problem.
- The need for a peer accountability mechanism.
Step four. Create links between the factors.
The next step in the causal loop diagram process is to see if there are any links between some of the factors that were identified earlier. Here's what the group came up with:
- "Board recruitment process" affects "level of role clarity and commitment."
- "Staff training of the board" affects "role clarity regarding fund-raising responsibilities."
- "Staff covers for the board by raising the funds themselves" affects "the level of commitment, the level of performance and level of ownership."
- "The Executive Director trying to solve the pro5blem alone" affects "the level of board ownership of fund-raising problem".
Step five. The final step is to see if the links make a loop.
In applying this last step, it is often possible to examine the problem by means of a "systems archetype". Systems archetypes are the "classic stories" in systems thinking - common patterns and structures that occur repeatedly in different settings. In our fund-raising example, the group used the "Shifting the Burden" archetype. In a "Shifting the Burden" situation, a short-term "symptomatic" solution is tried that successfully solves an ongoing problem. As the solution is used over and over again, it takes attention away from more fundamental, enduring solutions. Over time, the ability to apply a fundamental solution may decrease, resulting in more and more reliance on the symptomatic solution. An example can be seen in drug and alcohol dependency.
John Sibley’s website is a great resource for learning more about causal loop diagrams. www.systemsprimer.com
An important discovery made by the group was that, inadvertently, executive directors themselves can be a cause of the problem. Here’s how: In response to the problem of lack of board involvement in fund-raising, executive directors sometimes fill in for the board. This "rescue" constitutes a "symptomatic solution" or short-term solution to the problem in that additional funds are raised. But the "rescue" creates another problem – it adds to the lack of role clarity. Board members begin to see fund-raising as the executive director’s job. This increased role confusion also makes it harder to implement the more fundamental solution – developing an effective program of board recruitment and orientation that communicates fund-raising roles and expectations to board members. (The hour-glass icons symbolize the passage of time.) The high leverage solution is stop rescuing the board and focus on doing a better job of recruiting board members and orienting them to their fund-raising responsibilities.
In using this tool, keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Don’t look for a solution too quickly.
- As you move through the model, freely use what you learn to revisit and refine work done in earlier stages.
- During it all, consider assumptions (mental models) and the way they affect what we're seeing (or missing).
For more information about causal loop diagrams, refer to the Fifth Discipline Field Book, Chapters 13-17. Also visit:
Try these tools out. Share them with board and staff members. Let us know what happens!
Frank is based in Milwaukee, WI and works as a consultant and trainer for a variety of non-profit organizations. He has worked with Lutheran outdoor ministries on a variety of projects. These articles first appeared in the Outdoor Ministry Newsletter. The intended audience for these articles is both board and staff members.