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18 The PCB Magazine • August 2015 THE WAR oN FAILURE continues FeAture thinking, a more accurate way of thinking and viewing the world. It's the same for improving systems. We have to begin to think differently and expand our mind and skillsets to make sys- tems improvement work sustainable. We found in many cases, these paradigm shifts must take place before significant sustainable systems work can be done. 4. Leaders Who Won't Grow: Systems thinking is like learning a foreign language. Without knowing this language, leaders have little idea of the source of problems in the orga- nization or how to resolve those issues. In addi- tion, with 90+% of the problems being a func- tion of the systems, not the people who work in those systems, a leader or manager misses the opportunity and responsibility to set up his or her people to be optimally successful in their jobs, surely a top function of more conscious/ skilled leaders or managers. Instead, most non- systems thinking leaders and managers use what I call the "more-better-different" strategy. They do what's no longer working more, bet- ter, or differently—expecting a different result. We will talk a little more about the more-better- different problem below. The Power of Systems Thinking It's important to remember that quality isn't something we do—it's something we become. It's a way of being in the workplace. It's the way work is done. Quality is a mindset more than program. It's systems thinking from the board- room to the stockroom. The transformation of the mind toward systems thinking can be ac- celerated using the stresses in the mind as fuel. Systems thinking is a skill set much like learning a foreign language. In the beginning, to make sense of it, we translate systems think- ing back into our old way of thinking. As we become more fluent, we have to do less and less translation until we begin to think in a systems- based way. As a leader or manager, your entire world will open up in profound ways when you begin to see your workplace reality as it is, an ongoing dance of systems and subsystems that are driving whatever results are being produced. In the process, previously invisible systems will begin to become visible. Being that 90+% of the problems you face in your business are a func- tion of these systems, can you begin to see how systems thinking obsoletes much of what we have been domesticated to believe about lead- ership and management? There are undoubtedly other factors con- tributing to the critical condition of most qual- ity initiatives. However, if we begin to address these four issues, it appears we will be well on our way to creating sustainably better products, services and businesses. Let's take a look at the four concerns most on your minds and what we might be able to do alleviate them. Let's start with the biggest question: How may we create better process control? As stated earlier, everything in your business is systems and subsystems including systems of process control. Those systems are creating ap- proximately 94% of the less than optimal re- sults that you'd like to improve—sustainably. We have to improve the systems and grow the people—simple as that. It's simple to say, but not so simple to implement, yes? Systems, even when formally created, often morph into the informal. In addition to being informal (workers putting their own twist on