Elementary school children learn something that gifted adults often forget: systems awareness. Do you remember the song that goes “the knee bone is connected to the leg bone, the leg bone is connected to the hip bone” and so on? That’s a form of systems awareness: if the knee gets out of control, you can bet the leg and hip will suffer as well.
The systems are present in customer representations. Imagine that you are representing a client in a tax matter. Isn’t it natural to recognize that the outcome of the matter may affect not only the client’s tax liability, but also potentially her business, her marriage, or her employees? Lawyers are trained to recognize the ripples that stem from client issues, but what about other issues?
Your practice, your office, the people who serve your clients, these are all systems. Make a change in one area and it will affect other areas as well. As a leader, it’s up to you to recognize the effects of your changes, both prospectively and retrospectively. Doing so will help you anticipate and avoid problems and design outcomes that positively impact a particular system.
A few years ago, the executive committee of a law firm decided that a living person should handle all calls received during business hours. To implement that policy, the office manager created a detailed system regulating which secretaries could go to lunch or take a break, at what time, and which lawyer phones each secretary would cover. It seems sensible, right? Unfortunately, some attorneys did not want “outsiders” answering client inquiries, and morale among the attendees plummeted because they were no longer free to take lunches and breaks together without careful planning. In other words, the system was disrupted. The plan failed miserably and the hours spent creating it were wasted, all because no one considered the impact the planned changes would have on the attorney/assistant system.
Systems awareness is also useful in assessing how to achieve professional and personal goals. Barbara hired me to enhance her client development activities for her family law practice. She found it difficult to keep up with her billable hours and her rainmaking activities, let alone optional interests like exercising and visiting friends, or even participating in her children’s extracurricular activities. As we reviewed Barbara’s activities, she recalled that she had received several referrals in the past from people she had met when she was a den leader in her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. We talked about a variety of activities she could add, but Barbara kept coming back to her earlier experience with Girl Scouting and eventually decided to get involved again.
By resuming Girl Scouting, Barbara deepened her connection with her daughter, put herself in a position to meet parents who might need help with family law matters or meet others who might need help, and even got some exercise. Barbara added extra time to her schedule to do this, but because the time paid off in several areas, she was able to use the time to gain benefits that she otherwise would not have. Barbara became aware of the “system” formed by the intersection of her personal and professional life. (She may recall a recent review of Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life, which suggests experimenting with 4-way wins, which takes advantage of systems awareness.)
To increase awareness of your own systems, consider the ripple effect of changes you make or actions you may take.
