Hiong On Systems

18 years in innovation before I realised I was doing systems thinking. Now writing about the hidden systems that shape our work and our lives.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

For the past 18 years I've been an innovation practitioner. I've run workshops, projects and programmes for governments, corporates and startups all over the world.

But if I'm honest, something never quite felt right.

I kept asking "If we do this, what happens to X?" 1/4

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

*A sad but practical solution, that achieved the desired outcome

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

In the early 1990s at Pilanesberg National Park, rangers kept finding dead white rhinos.

They looked like they'd been crushed.
The horns were intact.

Clearly not the work of poachers, but then who?

The reason goes back to a decision made years earlier, in a different park. 🧵

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

A sad but solution that achieved the desired outcome. The elephant population was reduced to protect the vegetation, the young were spared, and Pilanesberg was able to kickstart introducing elephants to the park.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

Sources: Slotow and van Dyk, Koedoe (2001). Slotow et al., Nature (2000).

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

Everything is connected to something.

This is why good decisions can lead to bad outcomes.

I write about the hidden systems that shape our work and our lives. Follow for more.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

Their real job isn't in any process or operations manual.

You only find out what it was after something changes.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

Every organisation has its own balancing loops, some we notice, many we don't.

The pantry where people from different teams organically come together, share stories and spot problems early.

The complaints line answered by a real person, feeding problems back to the business.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

In systems thinking, this is a balancing loop: something rises, and a response pushes it back down.

For young male elephants, it only works if there are older bulls. Remove them and the balancing loop fails.

Nobody knew it existed until it was gone.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

In 1998, the park brought in six older bulls.

The young males' musth got shorter. The killing stopped.

Nobody had to control the young elephants. The system corrected itself once the missing piece was reinstated.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

In traditional elephant communities, when a young bull in musth is feeling aggressive, he meets a bigger, older bull, loses, and his musth fades.

When the young elephants were moved to Pilanesberg, nobody designed for this.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

This meant that they were becoming aggressive younger and for longer. The poor white rhinos became the outlet for their aggression.

Between 1992 and 1997, they killed more than 40 white rhinos.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

But the young bull elephants at Pilanesberg were entering musth about 10 years earlier than normal.

And instead of lasting a few days, it lasted for months.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

But moving younger elephants with no adults created a chain reaction nobody expected.

As male elephants mature they enter musth, a state of surging hormones and aggression. Typically it starts in their late 20s and only lasts a few days.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

Adult elephants were too big to move so they were sadly culled. The younger ones were transported to Pilanesberg, a brand new reserve built on old cattle farms, which didn't have any elephants yet.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

The story starts in Kruger National Park, which was facing an unusual problem. It had too many elephants. They were destroying the vegetation and threatening the park's biodiversity.

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

So this is the start of me sharing what I'm learning about how systems shape our work and our lives.

If you'd like to get a bit geeky with me, or you want to know why a gang of teenage elephants in South Africa started killing rhinos, follow along. 4/4

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

For the past 18 years I've been an innovation practitioner. I've run workshops, projects and programmes for governments, corporates and startups all over the world.

But if I'm honest, something never quite felt right.

I kept asking "If we do this, what happens to X?" 1/4

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

My mind always wanted to see the whole system, and to ask the "why" and "what about" questions nobody else wanted to ask.

I wasn't being negative. I was trying to see the wood for the trees.

It turns out there's a name for this: Systems Thinking. 3/4

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

It's a question that usually got brushed aside. I was being too negative. Overthinking it.

It's taken me almost two decades to realise I was the "problem". 2/4

[Hiong On Systems @HiongOnSystems]

Our first international project where we worked with @wearehanno on a US based project. http://t.co/xIgF73CXgg