Collaborative customer-focused systems thinking – a review of Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne
In this book, Bob Browne recounts how he drew on ideas from both the East and the West, including the philosophies of W. Edwards Deming and Eli Goldratt, to make the Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company a success.
In 1980, Bob Browne, with the help of a few others, acquired the Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company in a leveraged buyout.
Initially, he was getting “good results” by doing the things he had been trained to do. It seemed that was all that mattered. It, however led to a crisis and there was unrest in the company. The “way out of the crisis represents a transformation in .. leadership philosophies”[1].
He used a synthesis of two world views to lead the company; he calls this sys-tao. Sys represents the traditional Western ways of thinking, and tao is symbolic of methods rooted in Eastern traditions. “The works of W. Edwards Deming, the American who taught the Japanese about quality, heavily influenced Sys-Tao.”[2]
Browne saw that “the left side of our brain is more narrowly focused on what we know is important”[3] and that “the right side of our brain is more broadly vigilant, and is open to relationships”[3].
Deming organised his thinking into four broad categories, one of which was systems thinking[3]. Systems thinking can be “a mapping exercise to better visualise big-picture ideas”[4]. This approach can be left-brained, mechanistic thinking.
“Living systems are open, self-organising and nested”[4]. “Lifelike organisations seem to emerge from the bottom up”[4], but “top-down leadership philosophies…are not at all lifelike”[4]. “Humans do not naturally behave in predetermined and mechanistic ways” [4]. “Human organisations must be far more interdependent” [4]. “Interdependent relationships require a more collaborative approach to systems thinking”[4]. Systems thinking takes us to where “our vision becomes shared and it emerges into something bigger than ourselves.”[4]
The biggest single lesson Browne learned, he described as “Collaborative Customer-Focused Systems Thinking” [5].
When the business was sold in 2011, Browne and the other investors had made an average rate of return of 13% for each of the 32 years that they owned the company.
I would like to thank the members of the Profound Book Club for their informative discussions while we were reading this book, and Rob Park for organising the book club.
Sys-tao is the story of a business learning and through that succeeding. There is so much we can learn from this story. There are links below that will enable you to explore sys-tao further.
References
[1] Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne (2015, Chapter 2)
[2] Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne (2015, Preface)
[3] Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne (2015, Chapter 3)
[4] Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne (2015, Chapter 21)
[5] Sys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne (2015, Some Concluding Thoughts)
Resources:
Systems thinking and living systems
Bob BrowneSys-Tao: Western Logic – Eastern Flow by Bob Browne. Get the book!