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What Is the Whole System?

The Whole System

At its broadest level, the ‘whole system’ in your organisation refers to a representation of all internal and external stakeholder groups and a representation of different demographics across those stakeholder groups.

But the people in this ‘whole system’ can only be determined by reference to the purpose or focus of any initiative (eg if you were focusing on Sustainability, you would engage somewhat different people to say a focus on Cultural Change).

As one example, for an organisation focused on say strategic planning, stakeholder groups could include the Board, executive, management, staff, suppliers, customers and other external partners (eg academics, industry associations). Demographics might include age, gender, culture, etc.

[You can also apply this principle in everyday meetings by asking “Who else should be here”. A great way of doing this is to identify the people who have Authority, Resources, Expertise, Information and Need in the context of the purpose of the meeting.]

Why It Is Important to Get the Whole System into the Room

Here are 4 reasons why it is essential to get the ‘whole system’ into the room:

1. You can’t hope to change the system unless you understand it. And you can’t possibly understand it unless you hear the perspectives of others that make up the whole system.
2. The key to organisational change in this Information Era is creativity. And the best way to generate creativity is diversity. And maximum diversity comes from a representation of the ‘whole system’ across both stakeholder groups and demographics.
3. We now know beyond any doubt that it is only through giving others a chance to have their say, feel as though they have been heard, and ideally finding common ground for the future, that people will be engaged to action.
4. Engagement of the whole system leads to the building of relationships amongst stakeholders (who don’t normally communicate) that are essential to effective implementation.

Learn more about our approach to organisational change and community development.

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