The Silos in the Chapel
By David W. Packer
A great artist painted a certain mountain many times. When asked why painting the same thing over and over did not bore him, he responded, “Moving my easel just a few feet provides 
a whole new view.”
Likewise, systems thinking, which ranges from basic concepts to complex simulations, provides us with the ability to change perspective and heighten understanding in many different dimensions. When we shift our vantage point, we discover different ways of thinking and doing that can lead to important results.
A Brand-New Entity
Let’s examine the power of a core systems principle--that a system is different from the parts or components that make it up. The system stands alone on its merits and is not in any way “the sum of its parts.” In a theoretical sense, the interaction among the parts creates a brand-new entity that is oriented toward achieving a goal that none of its components could do alone.
This recognition in itself yields enhanced perspective. Deming saw it, pointing out that optimizing the component parts never creates the most effective system. In organizations, the components are often the functions or departments--engineering, marketing, sales, and the like. Components are often called “silos” because of the visual imagery: Silos are robust structures that stand side by side with no connections.
If every function were “perfect” in its own realm, the resulting system would be too costly, too cumbersome, or too mismatched to achieve its overall goal. It is how the departments work together--invariably making compromises--that determines the system’s effectiveness. Managers schooled in perfecting their functional contributions find this insight paradoxical and confusing.
Hidden Cost of Functional Excellence
I came across an example of this kind of suboptimization in a church with which I was involved. The church had strong functions, including a popular and charismatic pastor who delivered fine sermons and readings, and a talented music director who led the musicians in delivering impressive performances.
What more could one want? Well, there was something. Many congregants felt a vague sense of disappointment, seldom articulated, that the total Sunday-morning experience was not what it could be.
At a retreat, board members struggled to identify the problem. They finally realized that, while the performance of the components was superb, the system was falling short. The lack of integration across the silos led, for example, to services that conveyed a somber message while accompanied by whimsical show tunes—or vice versa, a playful sermon with the sounds of a funeral dirge. Every detail was superb, but the end result failed to deliver the power that was possible given the talents at work.
In this case, shifting perspective to look at the service as a system led to the understanding that the whole, the words and music together, was essential to high overall performance, and that some compromise in both functions was thus necessary. This approach not only enabled the board to see the problem and the opportunity, but also evoked high-quality discussion and assessment.
Without the systems view, neither the problem nor the resolution would have occurred so clearly, if at all. As in most organizations, the emphasis on functional excellence might have continued unquestioned and masked the path toward a better way. Once recognized, the issue might seem obvious, but such recognition often stays unseen, like the biblical candle under the basket.
Once we embrace the need to manage the “whole elephant,” fundamental changes often occur in goal setting, action planning, execution, and performance evaluation--every aspect of work. The satisfaction of working and learning together in new ways is an added benefit of taking a systems view.
David W. Packer is founding partner of the Systems Thinking Collaborative, a veteran of the MIT System Dynamics Group and of Digital Equipment Corporation, and a variety of boards. He and spouse Ginny have parented five and are now grandparents to fourteen. And he is a Red Sox fan, among other things.
cathedral photo by Ian Britton