As part of yesterday's Invitation to Systems Thinking workshop @jessitron prepared a short play from which the students would draw various diagrams of the software development system described. At one point the manager says, "This is not acceptable," and it hit me hard in layers.
Layer 1: of course it's acceptable. You've been working like this for months, maybe years. You've accepted it all along.
Layer 2: of course it's not acceptable. If you keep going like this you'll be out of business in a year or two, maybe sooner. Something does need to change.
Layer 3 (hit me as I awoke this morning): when I've made statements like this I've been struck by the failed attempt at distance. "I judge this system, therefore I am not part of this system." Wrong-o.
The system is the way it is because I've made it that way. When I say, "This is not acceptable," I am judging my own performance.
I'm finally getting what @cyetain means when he says we create sub-systems, not systems. Yes the team is performing abysmally, but I am part of the system that creates the environment in which that performance made (makes?) sense.
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