Systems Savvy — Do You Have It?
Systems Savvy is the ability to grasp the capabilities of a technology and how that technology might be meshed with organizational practice. People with systems savvy understand that technologies and practices are intertwined — and they know how to make adjustments to both the technology and the practice to effectively weave them together.
Who has systems savvy? I suspect all the readers of this blog have some degree of systems savvy. However, there are folks whose efforts and thinking make them excellent models for all of us:
- Brian Humphrey, LA Fire Department
- MIT Professor Pattie Mae and Ph.D. Candidate Pranav Mistry
- Tony Hsieh, Zappos
- John Seely Brown, past Chief Scientist at Xerox and past Director of the Palo Alto Research Center
My examples in this blog tend to focus on information technology, but systems savvy also applies to industrial and other technologies. For example the first person who thought about how farm chemicals might be more safely, cheaply, and effectively applied by “plug-and play” direct connectors (versus farmers having to fill, mix, and refill their spreaders by hand) also had systems savvy. Technology possibilities provided opportunities for better, safer, practice — but these had to be realized and implemented by people with systems savvy.
Deep technical or organizational expertise is not required for systems savvy. It’s an appreciation of the possible… which might even be limited by deep expertise if people instead anchor on present uses.
A degree of systems savvy is critical to both technical and organizational designers. Systems designers (the people that design the technologies we use) with systems savvy can design the technology with “triggers” to help others better understand the possible uses of their technology. For example, IDEO and Kaiser Permanente co-designed an information board that helps new parents and nurses keep track of the “journey home” following the birth of the baby. The technology had clearly “flippable” cards (designating whether the step was completed or not), a whiteboard surface and pen, and clearly marked areas for adding information. The design makes clear that cards can be reordered, should be flipped as steps occur, and provides a clear dashboard of the process.
Your Journey Home Board
Organizational designers with systems savvy can imagine how not-yet invented technologies might help their organizations effectiveness and efficiency, and ask for such technologies to be designed. Hilton Hotels issued a Request for Proposals last year asking for “game” tools to help them show employees how different actions can affect a guest’s mood. Hilton’s training exec David Kervella saw the value in a particular technology form, but had to get technical experts to help him realize the vision.
My ideas on systems savvy are a work in progress and I would appreciate your comments. Some earlier stages in this evolution include:
- Systems conductivity (here & here)
- Accidental systems designers
- Mental models of systems
I hope to spend some of my summer interviewing people who have demonstrated systems savvy. Beside those I note above, who else do you think has systems savvy? Personal introductions appreciated.
Tags: design thinking, IDEO, John Seely Brown, Kaiser, PARC, Systems Savvy, Tony Hsieh, zappos
12 Responses
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
[...] Moss Kanter shows her privacy systems savvy in her new post Don’t Read This, It’s Private to HarvardBusiness.org’s Voices [...]
May 27th, 2009 at 9:49 am
[...] I said in my last post, understanding the dimensions of privacy is part of developing our systems savvy. The use of false identity is a violation of privacy in that you are not being given true [...]
June 15th, 2009 at 4:51 am
[...] but “general education.” Basically, I think Mr. Nussbaum and I are both saying that systems savvy and design skills are critical for all of us, and need to be included in broad-based educational [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
[...] Systems Savvy is the “ability to grasp the capabilities of a technology and how that technology might be meshed with organizational practice. People with systems savvy understand that technologies and practices are intertwined — and they know how to make adjustments to both the technology and the practice to effectively weave them together.” [...]
August 16th, 2009 at 10:58 am
[...] so “savvy” that we have Trip-It automatically linked to our Google Calendars, that automatically update [...]
September 10th, 2009 at 9:41 am
[...] Brainstorm story is an example of systems savvy and ongoing TOP Management — and goes to show that you don’t have to have decades of [...]
September 13th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
[...] see this as an example of Loic’s systems savvy and TOP Management skills. Clearly he understands the technologies involved and the strategic [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 4:51 am
[...] I’d contacted Mr. Lawrence as part of an on-going project to create a measure of Systems Savvy. His background in government regulations, volunteer organization, aircraft construction, and [...]
October 20th, 2009 at 6:58 am
[...] Inc. He was kind enough to provide me with several examples of how he’s been able to develop Systems Savvy and how this plays out as TOP Management at [...]
October 30th, 2009 at 7:13 am
[...] they wouldn’t have thought of doing it any other way). But here’s the key: Eugene has systems savvy and quickly saw the value of the approach. He didn’t immediately post a recall. He certainly [...]
November 12th, 2009 at 11:40 am
[...] approach to a complex problem. Sometimes systems savvy means using elegant, but less high tech systems. Comments appreciated describing other [...]
January 28th, 2010 at 4:50 am
[...] & Ross’ new book, IT Savvy, jumped out at me given my colleagues’ and my work on Systems Savvy. I find IT Savvy to be a beautiful, more organizational-level, companion to Systems [...]