Collaborative Systems Thinkingseari.mit.edu/documents/summit/2008/06-SEAriSummit... · •SE def...

Collaborative Systems Thinking:

Understanding of team-level systems thinking

Caroline Twomey Lamb

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SEAri Research Summit 2008

October 21, 2008

SEAri Research Summit

October 21, 2008

© 2008 Caroline Twomey Lamb


Slide

2

Researcher Introduction

• Caroline Twomey Lamb– S.B. Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2003

– S.M. Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005

• Research Interests– Propulsion

– Systems engineering

– Social enablers of good technical design

– Practical execution of engineering

• Experience– Composites manufacturing and testing

– Bypass fan design risk mitigation

– Wind tunnel test design and execution

– Numerical methods (e.g. Monte Carlo analysis, MISES)

• Industry Involvement– AIAA Student Liaison to Board of Directors

– AIAA Public Policy Committee

– AIAA Young Professional Committee

– AIAA Diversity Taskforce


October 21, 2008



Slide

3

Motivation:

The Approaching Silver Tsunami

Engineering Demographics in the US

(Future US Space Workforce 2005)

N. Augustine and The Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century. Rising

Above the Gathering Storm. Technical report, National Academies, 2005.

D. Black, D. Hastings, and the Committee on Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision

for Space Exploration. Issues Affecting the Future of the U.S. Space Science and Engineering

Workforce: Interim report, 2006.

H. Davidz. Enabling Systems Thinking to Accelerate the Development of Senior Systems

Engineers. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.

E. Murman et.al. Lean Enterprise Value: Insights from MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative. Palgrave,

New York, NY, 2002.

R. Stephens. Ensuring Aerospace Skills of the Future. In Proc. AIAA/ICAS International Air and

Space Symposium and Exposition: The Next 100 Years, Dayton, OH, August 2003.

V. Neal, C. Lewis, and F. Winter. Spaceflight. Macmillan, New York, NY, 1995.

Manned Fighter Program Starts by Decade (Murman et al 2002)

Manned Spacecraft Program Starts by Decade (Neal 1995)


October 21, 2008



Slide

4

What is Systems Thinking?

R. Ackoff. Transforming the Systems Movement. Opening Speech at 3rd International Conference on Systems

Thinking in Management, May 2004. Philadelphia, PA.

P. Checkland. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Soft Systems Methodology: A 30-year retrospective. John Wiley

and Sons, West Sussex, England, 1999.

J. Gharajedaghi. Systems Thinking: Managing chaos and complexity. Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA, 1999.

P. Senge. The Fifth Discipline. Doubleday, New York, NY, 2006.

J. Sterman. Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modeling for a complex world. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2000.

Component

Complexity

EmergenceInterrelationships

A method and framework for describing and understanding the interrelationships and forces that shape system behavior. (Senge 2006)

A framework for systems with four basic ideas: emergence, hierarchy, communication and control. Human activity concerns all four elements. Natural and designed systems are dominated by emergence. (Checkland 1999)

A method of placing the systems in its context and observing its role within the whole. (Gharajedaghi 1999)

A skill to see the world as a complex system and understanding its interconnectedness. (Sterman 2000)

A skill of thinking in terms of holism rather than reductionism. (Ackoff 2004)

Context Wholes


October 21, 2008



Slide

5

Systems Thinking:

A Critical Skill in Short Supply

• SE def and Heidi—need experience

Systems thinking is valuable in low cost/high leverage early design

Systems thinking helps cope with increased systems complexity

Systems thinking is a necessary skill for effective systems engineers

Experience is a key enabler in systems thinking development (Davidz 2008)

Systems thinking is utilizing modal elements to consider the componential, relational, contextual, and dynamic elements of the system of interest.

(Davidz 2006)

H. Davidz. Enabling Systems Thinking to Accelerate the Development of Senior Systems Engineers.

PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.

H. Davidz. Enabling Systems Thinking to Accelerate the Development of Senior Systems Engineers. Systems

Engineering. Vol. 11 No. 1 2008.


October 21, 2008



Slide

6

Teams:

Leveraging Systems Skill

Engineering is socio-technical activity

• Teams leverage breadth and depth of member experience

– Multiple thinking styles

– Experience on different programs

– Different areas of expertise

• Teams add complexity

– Coordination costs

– Communication loses

– Semantic-based misunderstandings

• Good teams add value that exceeds their complexity

– Team norms and written processes are important contributors to this balance


October 21, 2008



Slide

7


Systems Thinking in Teams

“Dream Airplanes” by C. W. Miller


October 21, 2008



Slide

8


Systems Thinking in Teams

Collaborative systems thinking is an emergent behavior of teams resulting from the interactions of team members and utilizing a variety of thinking styles, design processes, tools and communication media to consider the system, its components, interrelationships, context,

and dynamics toward executing systems design (Lamb, 2008)

Collaborative systems thinking is an emergent behavior of teams resulting from the interactions of team members and utilizing a variety of thinking styles, design processes, tools and communication media to consider the system, its components, interrelationships, context,

and dynamics toward executing systems design (Lamb, 2008)

C. Lamb Systems Thinking as an Emergent Team Property. IEEE Systems

Conference, Toronto, Canada, April 2008


October 21, 2008



Slide

9

Research Structure

Research Design• Phase 1: Literature Review

– Define what is team-level systems thinking

– Establish framework for further inquiry

• Phase 2: Pilot Interviews– Validation of research directions

– Identification of focused areas of inquiry

• Phase 3: Case Studies– Empirical data

– Basis for theory development

Research Questions

• What are the empirically generalized traits of systems thinking teams?

• What aspects of team culture and technical process usage correlate with team-level systems thinking?

Potential Outcomes/Influences

• Workforce development: New ideas for fostering systems thinking development

• Process tailoring: Data on how successful teams actually use standard process

• Enterprise architecture: Team structures that enable collaborative systems thinking

SEAri Research Structure


October 21, 2008



Slide

10

Saturation

Achieved

Ten Down and Still Learning

• Two-thirds of data collected

• Five additional case studies pending

• ~Seven mini-cases used to test generalization of concepts

• Five patterns thus observed– Team structure

– Team membership

– Characteristics unique to design stage

– Process tailoring and usage

– Systems leadership

Aircraft

(Hardware)

Spacecraft

(Hardware)

Government Commercial Private

Conceptual Design;

Small Program

Detailed Design;

Large Program

Customer

Mini Case


October 21, 2008



Slide

11

Three Tiers for CST

Systems thinking teams employ 3 levels• Strong systems leadership

– 2-3 individuals acting in coordinated manner

– Strong individual systems thinkers with complementary skills

– Often a program manager or IPT lead

• Developing systems professionals– Functional background

– Demonstrated ability to ask questions outside their own area; curiosity about systems-level issues

– May be subsystem or IPT leads

– Convey functional information to team at correct level of detail

• Functional specialists– Have concurrent membership in several teams

– Often among the most experienced individuals on a team

– Participation driven by when expertise is required

– May or may not identify with systems thinking concepts

– Role on team changes with design stage


October 21, 2008



Slide

12

Strong interpersonal skills

Technical excellence

Systems awareness /

curiosity

CST Team Members:

Multitalented Stars

Collaborative systems thinking team members are selected

for their social skills as much as their technical skills

• Systems thinking teams are diverse– Past experience

– Variety of earned degrees

– Mix of team roles

– Unique outside interests

• Team leaders respect the individuality of team members– Treat each as unique rather than addressing the minimum common abilities


October 21, 2008



Slide

13

The Three States of CST

• Conceptual Design– Divergent thinking dominates

– Creativity rules

– Strong team intuition can be a barrier

– Process is at a minimum

– Leadership is important to keep team focused

– Most members belong to the middle tier

• Detail Design– Convergent thinking dominates

– Systems thinking is detail, execution oriented

– Team members and disciplined/focused

– Process oriented

– Functional experts are held closest in this state

• Testing / Integration

– Divergent thinking within a highly constrained environment

– Process is important, but individuals are product oriented

– Smaller teams with emphasis on middle tier

– Explicit venue for systems thinking development


October 21, 2008



Slide

14

Finding the Right Fit:

Process vs. Experience

• Design processes are recognized, but not necessarily used

• Experienced systems professionals rely on past experience

• Less experienced teams use discussion of process as means to develop documentation, learn

• Both groups identify with following spirit if not rule of process

Young Teams Execution Teams Experienced Teams

Tailoring (Discussion) ▫ Documentation ▫ Process Adherence


October 21, 2008



Slide

15

Management is not Leadership

• Strong systems leadership is an enabler to collaborative systems thinking teams– Systems leadership enables proper process tailoring for the team state and composition

– Leaders balance the skills and temperaments of team members

• Leadership by committee– Small teams may comprise systems leadership

– Complementary skills and backgrounds

• Leadership is inspirational– Keep focus appropriate for stage

• Leaders have strong technical backgrounds


October 21, 2008



Slide

16

What Comes Next?

Before June 2008• Complete remaining case studies

• Complete coding of interview data

• Support observed patterns with more detailed information and statistics from surveys

• Develop a set of CST team archetypes

Bottom Line

• This research identifies patterns; correlations

• Identify hypothesis for future research

Future Research• Hypothesis based research into causal relationships between 5 observed patterns and systems thinking

• Test link of observed CST enablers to workforce development

• Test link of CST enablers to increased team performance

Bottom Line

• Establish causal relationships between enablers and results

• Prescriptive research will enable helpful interventions


October 21, 2008



Slide

17

SourcesMotivation

N. Augustine and The Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century. Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Technical report, National Academies, 2005.

D. Black, D. Hastings, and the Committee on Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space Exploration. Issues Affecting the Future of the U.S. Space Science and Engineering Workforce: Interim report, 2006.

E. Murman et.al. Lean Enterprise Value: Insights from MIT's Lean Aerospace Initiative. Palgrave, New York, NY, 2002.

V. Neal, C. Lewis, and F. Winter. Spaceflight. Macmillan, New York, NY, 1995.

R. Stephens. Ensuring Aerospace Skills of the Future. In Proc. AIAA/ICAS International Air and Space Symposium and Exposition: The Next 100 Years, Dayton, OH, August 2003.

Systems Thinking

R. Ackoff. Transforming the Systems Movement. Opening Speech at 3rd International Conference on Systems Thinking in Management, May 2004. Philadelphia, PA.

P. Checkland. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, Soft Systems Methodology: A 30-year retrospective. John Wiley and Sons, West Sussex, England, 1999.

H. Davidz. Enabling Systems Thinking to Accelerate the Development of Senior Systems Engineers. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.

J. Gharajedaghi. Systems Thinking: Managing chaos and complexity. Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA, 1999.

C. Lamb Systems Thinking as an Emergent Team Property: Ongoing research into the enablers and barriers of team-level systems thinking. IEEE Systems Conference, Toronto, Canada, April 2008 (forthcoming)

P. Senge. The Fifth Discipline. Doubleday, New York, NY, 2006.

J. Sterman. Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modeling for a complex world. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2000.

Research Methods

H. Davidz. Enabling Systems Thinking to Accelerate the Development of Senior Systems Engineers. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.

A. Edmondson. Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2):350-383, 1999.

K. Eisenhardt. Building Theories from Case Study Research. The Academy of Management Review, 14(4):532{550, 1989.

B. Glaser and A. Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, IL, 1967.

D. Krathwohl, editor. Methods of Educational and Social Science Research. Waveland Press, Inc., Long Grove, IL, 1998.

C. Robson. Real World Research. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, 2002.

R. Singleton and B. Straits. Approaches to Social Research. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 3rd edition, 1999.

R. Stebbins. Exploratory Research in the Social Sciences, volume 48 of Sage University Papers Series on Qualitative Research Methods. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2003.

A. Strauss and J. Corbin. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1998.

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