Connections and High Performance

You know about systems of government, circulatory systems, systems of thought, the educational system….  On and on it goes.

When someone or some group maximizes the potential of one or many systems in concert to create amazing results, they are synergizing their systems for high performance.

The Synergy in Life System and the central concepts of GreenSeed Consulting have come to be as a result of my experience, training, observation, and thought in several diverse areas. These are: systems of team play used in sport; systems of thought from both psychology and philosophy; systems of individual human performance from the study of physiology; systems of education; physical and mental systems from martial arts… and systems of management and leadership. 

It was the study of systems of management that started me looking closely at the profound connections within and between systems.  I knew from experience that all systems have aims or objectives and that creating synergy within and between systems is where high performance is born.  When you look at it in a general sense, everyone knows this but just might not use the same vocabulary to explain high performance.  For me, it was when I started to study the area of Systems Thinking — interestingly, it has roots in electrical engineering — that the power of finding and creating connections within and between systems began to establish as at first a thought and now as a FACT in my mind.

For example, there are connections between systems of play in sport and the systems of physiological training used with the athletes on a team; they also require systems of thought that are geared to performance… and this requires a vision or a system of philosophy.  That same team requires training and learning derived from and brought forth through systems of education…. On it goes. It’s all connected.

How about your group or team?  Are there connections within and between systems?  How about you?  Do you have a system of thought that creates a state of high performance? 

What lays at the base of all the systems that exist in our world?  What is the connection that underlies all things?  Energy.  That is a statement of scientific fact.  Energy is our one substance.  Create a philosophy or psychology that is hopeful and has an aim, and you will create a resonant physiology of health — based on your use of and direction of energy.  Create a system of education that is natural, flowing, and in concert with psychology, physiology, social systems tendencies etc. and you will have a recipe for potential high performance because of the use of and direction of energy.  Everything is connected in energy, through aims and objectives, and most importantly through our ability to synergize individual and corporate systems to meet those aims and objectives.  That’s high performance!  This is fascinating.

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Beyond Ego-centrism !

Big word — ego-centrism.  It explains young kids.  They believe themselves to be the center of their own worlds.  Their egos are central to their experience.  Somewhere during the toddler years, almost every child has a profound experience of realization.  They realize that they are not in fact the center of the universe.  That they and others share a larger system in a dynamic dance.  Mankind had a similar – albeit slow — realization when the theories of Copernicus in the 1500’s were supported by Galileo in the 1600’s hundreds through the use of the telescope and mathematics.  It was at this time that mankind slowly began to accept that the earth is NOT the center of the universe.  An interesting parallel. 

A funny thing happens when children realize that there are in fact other people that have needs and wants that might conflict with or compete with their own.  They start to group.  A new phase starts and this new phase is punctuated by the coming together with others in ways that allow groups to identify themselves.  It is an extension of ego-centrism that I call social ego-centrism.  The structure of singular ego doesn’t go away, but is largely consumed by and morphed into a group ego.  This group then thinks that they — their likes and dislikes, their drama, triumph, and difficulty — are the center of the universe.  It is from this construct that we see prejudice, distrust of others that are unlike ourselves, stereotypes, and many other less than helpful mindsets that impede growth, development, and performance. 

The question that arises from this discourse is: “in your family, social group, or work-group do you transcend social ego-centrism and discover the liberated capacity for high performance, or do you live within your universe center, unable to see the systems you exist within?”    Gaining objectivity is the gaining of perspective that leads to the ability to change, adapt, leverage for power, and design systems for positive gain.  Living in the center of social ego-centrism is living lost in a tiny yet encompassing universe that generates, feeds upon, and supports itself in impotent ways.

Can your group see itself?

Finding ‘UP’ through Systems Thinking

If you are sick, you really don’t have to do anything… at the very least, people don’t expect much of you.  That’s fair because most people feel a little low now and then and getting cut a little slack can go a long way to recovery.

BUT

What if there is no direction for a recovery?  To recover, you are returning to a state of balance and if you don’t know what or where that balance is you don’t know what direction to head for an optimal state of being. Kind of like jumping from a height into a lake and losing the ‘UP’direction for a moment.  That’s a bad moment.  It feels very out of control.   Now, what about organizations?  What if they are ’sick’ and no one expects much of them because they don’t have the talent, the funding, the facilities, the management team, the support, the recognition….  What if your organization is sick and you are floating along with no where to recover to?  No ‘up’.

What if?

You have to know where you are going in order to get there…. That’s what forecasting is all about and planning.  Do they work?  If the road you are driving on leads to a cliff, then all the planning in the world, all the best talent on board, the best equipment etcetera will not mean much by the time you reach the end of the journey!  Forecasts and planning must be made in health and plan for health.  A sick organization is not the best planner.  Its like a sick person.  It just wants to get better and lays low and does its best to recover.  Luckily for individuals, we are — most of us — able to return to relative health after being ill.  Thankfully, gratefully, we return to health.  An organziation doesn’t have such sophisticated organizing power as does the magnificent human body… so, it needs to see itself as a system — and within the system that it inhabits — before it can find its up.

The systems thinking exercise in objectivity is done through symbolic conversation.  Using symbols to ‘tell the story’ of the organization helps everyone first SEE what the parts make and then realize — collectively — just WHAT the organization is.  After this, purpose and direction are determined.  And THEN strategies can be implemented — but ONLY those that make sense in terms of the system’s organization, structure and capacity.  And, all along the way the tools of systems — the symbolic language of organizing — are used for deep conversation and clarification.  They are used to CREATE the organization’s picture and its story.  Complete a systems thinking exercise in objectivity and you are ready to apply energy and find the correct times and places to influence for gain, for good, for improvement.  Its the only way that works.  It is the way.

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.