The Submarine Model
The Submarine Model
for Organizational Systems Thinking
(c) 2023 by Denis SunnySystems Thinking Applied to Organizational Systems
Regardless of the naming version, the actual meaning of the model's elements and their interconnections remains the same.
Once everything is synchronised, we will remove this notice.
Thank you for the understanding !
The Submarine Model is based on the Iceberg Model of Systems Thinking tailored for the Organizational context.
So far, I have not managed to identify the author of this Iceberg Model. When I find it out, I will readily provide their names here.
This context-independence is what makes the Iceberg Model of Systems Thinking applicable across various (social) systems.
The model suggests that for any event involving people, where certain patterns emerge, these patterns are shaped by underlying structures within which individuals operate. These structures, in turn, are formed by people (whether the same individuals or others) based on their mental models.
In the context of organizational systems, it's crucial to grasp the logical meaning of the model's components, which is outlined in the right column of the diagram on this slide.
Another key concept is that each higher level of the model is influenced by the level directly below it. This means that in cause-effect relationships, the cause is always found at the model's lower level, with the effect manifesting at the level above.
For instance, every attempt to apply this model in the context of organizational systems requires first to map the terms of this model on those more specific to organizational systems. This becomes even more complicated when people compare their system models based on different mappings.
The Submarine Model of Organizational Systems Thinking is based on a unified approach to this kind of mapping. It was rigorously tested in real-world scenarios and against the proven laws of organizational behaviors, including the following:
- Culture eats Strategy for breakfast (Peter Drucker)
- The performance of a system depends on how the parts interact, never on how the parts act taken separately. (Prof. R. Ackoff)
- Structure eats Culture for lunch (by Denis Sunny)
- Structure drives Culture(by Craig Larman)
Outcomes are caused by the Outputs of the considered organization. Both outcomes and outputs can be impacted by External Factors.
- Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast (a saying widely associated with Peter Drucker)
- The performance of a system depends on how the parts interact, never on how the parts act taken separately. (Prof. R. Ackoff)
In other words, outputs and outcomes directly depend on the Process and Behavioural Patterns of people involved in the creation of outputs (including their preferences and priorities at work, what they focus on, etc.)
- Structure drives Culture (by Craig Larman)
- Structure eats Culture for lunch (by Denis Sunny)
The creation of the aforementioned patterns is strongly impacted by what is called "structures" in the Iceberg Model. In the context of Organizational Systems Thinking, we are speaking about the entire Organizational Design playing the role of such "structures". To learn more about what stands behind it, refer to the Goal-Centric Model introduced later in this document.
Someone is always authorized to decide about organizational design - one or many people, the same as those doing actual work or completely different ones. And this kind of decision is always driven by something. For instance, one of the most common Drivers of Organizational Design is the level of satisfaction of the decision-makers with the current situation.
- What the organization's top management does actually control? They control their own actions of driving organizational design and the results of those actions are their product - organizational design itself. Hence, these two layers of the Submarine Model are Controllable.
- The behavioral and process patterns usually change following the changes in organizational design with significant inertia. However, the strongest impact on these patterns still comes from the organization - they are CULTIVABLE through the organizational changes.
- The external factors considered in this model separately are the ones OUT-OF-REACH for the considered organization.
- Outputs and outcomes are INFLUENCABLE as they are impacted by behavioural and process patterns and external factors which are all out of control by the organizational management.
For instance, the satisfaction of decision-makers may depend on business outcomes thereby creating feedback from the system to its drivers.
Unlike many individuals, the entire existence of organizations usually depends on their outcomes (performance). And the people driving organizational design do usually care about those outcomes. So, while it is not available in the Iceberg Model, such the dedicated element as System Feedback makes much more sense in the context of Organizational Systems Thinking... at least statistics-wise.
There are three frames based on this Model for your different use cases.
All the frames are available for printing or digital use on Miro and Mural.
Use the provided guidelines to fill the canvas
Example
A simple example to improve understanding
Blank Version
Plenty of free space to minimize distractions from your organizational root-cause analysis
So far FREE of charge!
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will be appreciated very much!
Submarine Model © 2023 by Denis Sunny
is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0