Systems thinking requires a massive change in the way organizations design and manage work. Old thinking must be flushed out so that new and better thinking can replace it. The outdated functional design of organizations according to the type of work performed needs an overhaul. Frederick Taylor, Henry Ford, and a slew of other early management thinkers designed a great system for their day. But that day has long passed, and the theory that won World War II is now keeping countries like the United States from competitiveness and advancement.

Behind the need to redesign how we work are a set of assumptions. These assumptions manifest themselves in management thinking, and they ultimately get passed on to customers in the form of sales, operations, human resources, and IT departments. Although as customers we logically expect this organizational setup will help serve us, more often we get the runaround through these organizational functions.

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