FROM SILOS TO SYSTEM: BUILDING AND MANAGING ORGANIZATIONS AS SYNCHRONISED NETWORKS FOR THE AGE OF COMPLEXITY Dr. Domenico Lepore will talk about shifting organizations from silos to systems that are fit for the age of complexity.

2. Dr. Domenico Lepore at MEETUP OSLO 25th October 2022
From silos to system:
Building and managing organizations as
synchronized networks for the age of
complexity

3. Where I come from…

4. Why am I here?

6. Why are organizations
plagued by the drawbacks
of silos?

7. Because they still
adopt a worldview of
individual, separate
and hierarchical parts
and functions where
interactions are
mechanical.

8. “ You should appoint them over leaders
of thousands,
leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties,
and leaders of tens. ”
Exodus 18:21

9. Hierarchies have generated “functions” that are
“responsible” for their results and the budgets allocated
to them.
Cost accounting has sanctified this fallacy.

10. Our world, instead, is complex:
a reality that is highly interconnected and
interdependent that gives rise to emergent
properties.
+ +
+ =

11. And current
crises are
emergent
properties...

12. We need a new way of organizing and
managing companies because our world is
complex, where organizations understand
and manage themselves as whole systems.

13. It’s not about learning the Physics
behind complexity.
It’s about leveraging the science of
complexity to achieve organizational
results by bridging the science to a
sound management approach.
How do we do that?

14. By looking at the fundamental elements that
make up to work of an organization.
The key constituents of life are hydrogen,
oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and
sulfur.
What are the basic constituents of work?

15. 1) Repetitive processes
2) New initiatives
(one-off projects)

16. How do we combine these basic
constituents of work?

17. An organization is a system, a
network of interdependent
components (repetitive processes
and one-off projects) that work
together to achieve a common
goal.

18. Consumers
Test of processes, machines, methods, costs
Consumer research
Design & redesign
Distribution
Suppliers of material
and equipment
A
D
B
C
Receipt and
test of materials
Production Assembly Inspection
Buffer
Dr. W. Edwards Deming
The organization as a system

19. Consumers
Test of processes, machines, methods, costs
Consumer research
Design & redesign
Distribution
Suppliers of material
and equipment
A
D
B
C
Receipt and
test of materials
Production Assembly Inspection
Buffer
Visible
interdependencies
😊
Feedback cycle
Key features of a system are customer, feedback cycle and
interdependencies.

20. Every system has a constraint.

21. A constraint is not a bottleneck.
It is the strategically chosen leverage point of an organization
that, when correctly used (“exploited and subordinated to”)
allows a company to generate the greatest perceived value in
the eyes of the customer.

22. Find your
leverage
point.

23. What does a constraint-based system
look like?

24. suppliers of materials and
equipments
receipt and
test of
materials
production, assembly, inspection
distribution
tests of processes, machines,
methods, costs
consumers
consumer
research
design and
redesign
A
B
C
D
Feedback
Client
Interdependencies

25. $
suppliers of materials and
equipments
receipt and
test of
materials
production, assembly, inspection
distribution
tests of processes, machines,
methods, costs
consumers
consumer
research
design and
redesign
A
B
C
D
Feedback
Client
Interdependencies

26. The results of an organization depend almost
entirely on its constraint.
So how can we ensure that the constraint
works all the time?
Through a buffer – Its statistical fluctuation
will tell us how the whole system is
performing

27. $
suppliers of materials and
equipments
receipt and
test of
materials
production,
assembly, inspection
distribution
tests of processes, machines,
methods, costs
consumers
consumer
research
design and redesign
A
B
C
D
Feedback
Client
Interdependencies
Buffer Control Chart
buffer

28. How can we use this knowledge
operationally to shift from conventional
silos to behaving like a system?

29. The role of competencies and their levels

30. The transition from silos to system is the shift from a conventional
hierarchy to a hierarchy based on competencies and the role
that these competencies play in achieving the goal of the
organization.
So the question becomes, how can we maximize what our
system can achieve through leveraging the available
competencies?

31. By creating a synchronized network of projects.
What is a project?
A project draws different competencies together in
order to accomplish a specified goal, within a precise
timeframe and designated cash outlay.

32. A project is also a system with a constraint …
32
A PROJECT A
…we call this constraint the CRITICAL CHAIN.
The Critical Chain is the longest sequence of dependent events taking
into account the real availability of resources and competencies – this
what we call finite capacity scheduling.

33. A company can shift from silos to system by
becoming an organized and synchronized
network of “critically chained” projects.
The speed at which these
projects are completed
generates the maximum
value.

34. D PROJECT D
B PROJECT B
C PROJECT C
A PROJECT A
We schedule projects at finite capacity using available
competencies.
We monitor the oscillation of Project Buffers to control the
progress of all the projects.

35. So what’s stopping us?

36. The Cognitive Constraint…
…determines the pace with which individuals and
organizations are able to translate available
knowledge into actions to enact change.

37. The Thinking Processes from the theory of
Constraints (TOC) represent a linguistic framework
that amplifies and fortifies our cognition.
They allow us to identify, manage and overcome
the obsolete mental models that prevent us from
conceiving the broader reality of
interdependencies in which we are all immersed.
They help us paint a new epistemological
framework that is suitable for complexity.

38. The Thinking Processes aid and strengthen our
ability to harness the power of our emotions and
support the change process, more specifically:
1) What to change (intuition)
2) What to change to (analysis)
3) How to make the change happen
(implementation)

39. They help us overcome doubts and fears and to
peel away the “six levels or resistance” to
change.

40. LEVEL OF RESISTANCE TO CHANGE THINKING PROCESS
1 Are we dealing with the right problem? 1. Conflict Cloud
2 Is the solution the right one? 2. Injections
3 Have we really thought everything
through?
3. Future Reality Tree
(FRT)
4 Are bad things going to happen to me
because of it?
4. Negative
implications branch
5 Aren’t there just too many obstacles to
make this thing work?
5. Prerequisite Tree
(PRT)
6 Am I (and others) really able/willing to
do this?
6. Transition Tree (TRT)

41. LEVEL OF RESISTANCE TO CHANGE THINKING PROCESS
1 Are we dealing with the right problem? 1. Conflict Cloud
2 Is the solution the right one? 2. Injections
3 Have we really thought everything
through?
3. Future Reality Tree
(FRT)
4 Are bad things going to happen to me
because of it?
4. Negative
implications branch
5 Aren’t there just too many obstacles to
make this thing work?
5. Prerequisite Tree
(PRT)
6 Am I (and others) really able/willing to
do this?
6. Transition Tree (TRT)

42. Our books so far…

43. Connect with us:
Domenico Lepore: lepore@sechel.ws
www.intelligentmanagement.ws
ESS3NTIAL:
www.ess3ntial.com