Quotes in systems thinking

It is a testament to our naïveté about culture that we think that we can change it by simply declaring new values. Such declarations usually produce only cynicism.

the system that people work in and the interaction with people may account for 90 or 95 percent of performance.

You can't work directly on morale. You work on other things and morale will come along with it.

Why did the system allow that mistake to be made?

What? You can’t expect us to design systems that prevent mistakes from being made.

Yes I can. That is much more sensible than expecting people never to make a mistake.

Real benefits come when managers begin to understand the profound difference between "cost cutting" and "eliminating the causes of costs."

Managers must have the discipline not to keep pulling up the flowers to see if their roots are healthy.

Less than 5 percent result from people committing errors. Human error is a negligible source of our problems. Yet because we don't understand systems, we act as though human error were the primary cause of our problems.

Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it is awfully hard to get it back in.

The idea of a merit rating is alluring. The sound of the words captivates the imagination: pay for what you get; get what you pay for; motivate people to do their best, for their own good.

The effect is exactly the opposite of what the words promise. Everyone propels himself forward, or tries to, for his own good, on his own life preserver. The organization is the loser.

The merit rating rewards people that conform to the system. It does not reward attempts to improve the system. Don't rock the boat.

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.