A Business Culture of Reflection

Guidance - Part 5: Systemic Management and Organizational Development featuring the KNOW-WHY Method

After the four previous papers of this series emphasized different practical applications of systems thinking and modeling in order to reflect on the complex challenges of an enterprise or a project, this paper now tackles the question of how to establish a culture of reflection within an organization that is eager and able to perform and maintain systems thinking. The paper explains what this means, what the major obstacles are, how to initiate the change and how to maintain a culture beyond our current dominant structure of a single person’s sovereignty of interpretation.

This guidance comes in a series of guidances for “A Business Culture of Reflection” in line with:

1. Systemic Strategy Development including Risk and SWOT analysis

2. Systemic Product Development featuring Idealized System Design

3. Quantitative Optimization and Risk Analysis of Projects and Processes

4. Systemic Project Management

5. Systemic Management and Organizational Development featuring KNOW-WHY Method

The series describes the application of the software iMODELER (both, the freeware and the full version) for the example of a start-up enterprise (newly founded or a profit center within a company) that plans to become successful with developing, manufacturing and selling a revolutionary electric car.

The 'business culture of reflection' captures the idea that any enterprise can leverage the collective potential of its employees by collaboratively looking at the interconnections of all the existing arguments within the enterprise (and also from the stakeholders outside). Not only the all-too-common phenomenon of endless and repeated meetings with little progress but also that of reluctant or simply unfounded decision-making can be tackled with this change of corporate culture.

Here you can download the guidance: A Business Culture of Reflection – Part 5