 So most of us have had a group experience at some point or another that didn't go great And it kind of soured us on the group experience overall Maybe more than once since this happened and a lot of times it comes down to one person Just trying to kind of force their way and not really working as part of the team But doing things differently and trying to fit a square pig and into a round hole and just you know Just not working within the structure of the group or working together with the group and as we know that Groups are sort of like a big machine right like a car engine or another type of big machine where all the pieces are important And they all really have to work though together in order for the machine to run smoothly This is all part of what we think of as systems theory and so I wanted to spend a minute thinking about groups as Systems and how systems theory operates in groups and the importance of that So first of all, let's define system What is a system a system is a set of interconnected parts working together to form a whole in the context of a changing environment? so group essentially we're going to look at this as a Group as a system which is I can group is just a series of interconnected parts working together to form a whole In the context of a changing environment, so group is very much systems And so system where this comes from where the idea of systems originally came from the inception of modern systems theory actually came from the field of biology with the proposal of general systems theory in 1956 Ludwig von Bertalan fee a Canadian biologist suggested that the traits of Biological systems meaning input transformation and output could in fact be applied to any system, and it's not just a Part of biological systems, but really any system at all. So this started, you know that in 1956 idea of general systems theory Well, then in 1966 10 years later General systems theory was expanded to the study of organizations by Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn who called the approach Systems theory so they dropped the general and just called it systems theory Up to that point in time organizations were seen as a machine essentially almost in a literal sense The people included were seen as a machine But Katz and Kahn suggested that this did not accurately capture the dynamics of an organization thinking about as a machine Didn't strictly fit what happens in an organization They felt that organizations much like living organisms are open systems that interact with their environment in order to Acquire the resources that they need to grow and to survive so they Took the basic principles from the model of general systems theory that we see here that was developed by von Bertalan fee and adapted them to a model that more specifically reflects the systems within an organization so input throughput and output in combination with feedback both internal and external feedback and And and taking into account the importance of the environment in all of that so they developed this Model of what they called systems theory Now there are a couple of important aspects of systems theory that I want to take a look at In addition to just understanding that the systems theory doesn't involve input every group relies on input It's got to have fuels got to have things coming in that it can work with and data and And resources that it can work with then they use that in the area of throughput and refine them and and put them to use As needed within the specific group and then what comes out the other end is output What they what they're able to develop and all of this is influenced of course by feedback from both within the group But also feedback from you know external sources and that they draw on from outside of the group So there's all kinds of things happening here in systems theory and this just kind of is on repeat this whole There's any time a group is in Process working on something But there are a couple of important key kind of aspects that I want to look at here The first is what we call interdependence and this is something we talked about when we defined what a group is that a group Involves interdependence. It's that ripple effect the idea that we throw a stone into a calm body of water And you get that the ripples that affect the entire body of water not just where the stone goes in but but the entire Body of water is then affected. That's interdependence and interdependence The really has an impact on on what we call synergy right this idea that the hole is greater than the sum of the parts that That two plus two doesn't always equal four sometimes when you have synergy at work two plus two equals five And you get more than you would even just From those individuals if we were to calculate all of that and it's kind of the idea too of the The same thing that you get the reason we braid rope we create rope in that mansion and that when we braid it When we find a thread a single threads that are braided they become exponentially stronger together That is synergy right so it's not just that we have the tensile strength then of multiple Threads it's that we have the tensile strength of those threads and then some Attitude when we braid it together that creates that that synergy right and we get that in groups as well We can see that at work in groups that when we get people together We get this diversity of ideas and thoughts and creativity and we get people pushing each other and all these kinds of things That we see that synergy at work in group because of that interdependence that interconnectedness and it is certainly affected By that interdependence creates that sort of synergy now if we have to be cautious though because Where we have one thing you can also have the opposite thing right so we have synergy that's created there But we can also have negative synergy as I just said You can have in synergy you have two plus two equals five right two plus two can't equal five and people can push each other and Work well together But at the same time when you get things together if things don't go the right way and they go the opposite direction Two plus two can equal three and you get end up getting a less than you would just from those individuals right? Because of that interference because of that negative synergy or whatever happens there you get that we see this You know and one of my classic favorite television shows growing up was Gilligan's Island, right? And if you're familiar with Gilligan's Island You know that Gilligan is in the red shirt and the hat sitting down at the bottom there Gilligan's a good guy and these people are lost on an island They're always trying to find a way to get off the island, but and Gilligan means well He's got a big heart, but he's always messing things up, right? So you have this synergy of these other groups you have the the you know intellect of the professor and the the Workmanship of the the skipper right and the creativity of the others and the resources that the others bring to this But then you also have Gilligan who is working hard and trying to help but always finds a way to mess things up And and that's negative synergy So you have what everybody's bringing, but it's coming up to less than it would Individually if they were just to work on their own Interdependence can create that as well So we do need to be cautious of that and be aware of that that we get this Amazing output of synergy potentially, but at the same time it could lead to you know if we get group think and things like that We we end up with negative synergy So we have to be aware of independence in that aspect of groups as systems this connection and this connectedness Which helps the group run is also something that can be damaging if it's not running in the in the right way Adaptability is another characteristic of groups as systems. They depend on feedback Groups in in a system. We know that they depend on feedback again internal feedback external feedback that they draw in as Part of that input and then it throughout the process as feedback that they that they pull into the throughput process So they have to have this feedback, but there's this dynamic what we call dynamic equilibrium, right? Between change and stability We're always trying to balance this out We've got it balanced because groups experience change all the time, but they also thrive in stability They need both they need that input they need that feedback and they need this change But they also need stability to be able to run effectively and to be able to continue to do their work effectively So there's this equilibrium There's this balancing act at work and it comes down to a couple of different factors We've got to examine and consider the degree of change in other words How much change is coming at one particular time at any given point we got to think about the rate of change How quickly is this happening and then the desirability of change? Is this something that the group wants or that it's that it seems like it's going to be a Positive for the group or is it not is it so you know people something people are going to resist We've got to balance these things and work within these things sometimes they're within our control Oftentimes they are not so we've got to be prepared for change And we've got to examine though the degree the rate and the desirability of change and try and balance that with some stability Understanding that change can be good that that input is necessary that feedback is necessary To continue providing that fuel For groups it'd be like trying to run a car engine, but never putting in more gasoline at some point You're going to run out you're going to need this feedback You need this input to keep fueling that throughput so that you can you can get the output at the other side so Adaptability in a in a group as part of a system is going to be Essential and going to be crucial that we balance all these things out and try and manage change in the best possible way with that dynamic equilibrium So we see that the groups are again They're an intricate kind of not not a machine exactly, but they're an intricate system, which is why we call it systems theory When one of those gears gets out of whack it really throws off the entire machine because of That interdependence and you know so if there's an inability to adapt to change and to use change then that can really throw the system off But we need everybody working and doing their part running their piece of that system Efficiently and and feeding it well and and you know keeping it well maintained and so forth doing all they can to maintain that system In order for a group to really be effective because a group really is a system and does You know run on and thrive on or not thrive on on things related to that systems theory Few questions about systems theory about groups of systems or anything related to that Please feel free to email me in the meantime I hope this gives you some understanding of what that means for a group development and And the impact that it can have to understand systems theory as a part of that