Now that you have identified what system you are a part of, how you are functioning within that system, and how the rest of the system is working. Now we will look at how your system works with other systems.

Once you have worked to understand how system theory works, you will begin to look at how you fit into your system.  As difficult as this is, it is nothing compared to trying to understand how your system works with other systems.  The reason it is more difficult is that now you must understand how other systems work.  We all have enough trouble understanding our system, whey do we need to understand how what we do effects the other systems.  Many ask themselves, as long as I understand the other systems requirements for me, why do I need to understand the other system?  This step is where we learn to really look at the big picture and try to understand how we fit into the whole.

Once you understand your day to day processes and identified the good…bad…and ugly, you must now work with people from the other systems that have gone through the same exercise that you have.  When you all get together you must:

1. identify how each individuals inefficiencies are causing issues within each of the other systems
2. Identify if a specific systems efficiency is causing inefficiency somewhere in the whole
3. understand that it may be impossible for all systems to maximize efficiency.  This is a tough one for management.
4. decide which inefficiencies are acceptable andhow they will benefit all the systems as a whole and change the ones that need to be changed
5. modify expectations and benchmarks of individual systems based on identified efficiency and accepted inefficiencies
6. identify which other systems your system interacts with

Please don’t let the word system as a way of describing the people and processes in a company lead you to believe this is a cold and calculated process.  It is anything but that.  We use this word because it could be a person, automated process, or outsourced process.  If thinking you are just one system in a group of systems that make up the whole disturbs you, then you need to look around you and realize that everything is just a series of systems interacting with other systems.