Do we think mostly linear?

You think that because you understand "one"
that you therefore understand "two" because "one" and "one" make "two".
But you forget that you must also understand "and".
Sufi teaching story

What are the possible interpretations of AND?

It can be “multiply”, “plus”, “divided”, “square”. You can add more to this list depending on your expertise.

I am sure you understand I am not discussing arithmetic. The real life including corporate life is full of such a situation.I can cite many examples.

1. Most global surveys like “happiness surveys”, “hunger surveys” are of this nature. We decide on the happiness and hunger levels of nations based on a few questions asked with some set of people. The questions do not necessarily add up to Happiness or Hunger.

2. We make hiring and other people’s decisions based on a few observations without understanding the system around the observation. Often we thought the other person is not listening because he was responding to you fast. It almost sounded like he did not think before responding. All we know, he might have heard that question several times, or he is an expert on the subject.

3. We often see independent problems in the organisation. They are not truly independent. They are connected and part of the larger system.

Connecting the so called “independent” things requires an eye for detail and maybe an element of imagination.  We need to search for patterns and designs. 

It requires practice. 

A few random stars, when connected, become beautiful zodiac
A few random strokes of paints can become a great piece of art.

Every year in the first quarter, most organisations conduct performance review and decide on pay hikes and promotions. It is very common to find some employees decide to quit after the decision on pay hike / promotions. 

Most will conclude that they quit because of an unsatisfactory pay hike or promotions. The truth is often.

  1. The exit after pay hike decision is only a trigger to the event of resignation
  2. There are several aspects of people and organisations might work on the employee for several months preceding the month of decision on pay hike / promotions. They can be relationship with team or managers, organisation / team culture/ business growth, etc.

I am sure you will have experienced similar situations in different areas of your work. 

Can you share your experience with specific details?  

Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes ...
Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes.
Russel Ackoff
System Thinker

If you are interested in reading more about System Thinking or Thing in Systems, I recommend

  1. Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
  2. Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows