Building a systems picture from the iceberg model
How to create a shared understanding of how the complexity of an organisation works
The iceberg model is perhaps one of the best and simple ways to demonstrate the way that systems thinking can be applied to a problem or service design.
As the manager of the service is the one who is responsible and owns the service, it is their thinking that characterises this. I always work with that manager, over the Understand phase. to help them link their service to the iceberg model. This takes time, and is performed with them. They are the ones who dictate what is in the diagram. I am the one that helps put the aspect of the system into the picture.
As the manager of the service is the one who is responsible and owns the service, it is their thinking that characterises this. I always work with that manager, over the Understand phase. to help them link their service to the iceberg model. This takes time, and is performed with them. They are the ones who dictate what is in the diagram. I am the one that helps put the aspect of the system into the picture.
Addressing problems only on their event level is often not enough. The real causes are often hidden from plain sight.
Iceberg model is a tool that allows you to shift your perspective and see beyond the immediate events that everyone notices. It helps you to uncover root causes of why those events happen. That's possible by looking at deeper levels of abstraction within the system that are not immediately obvious.
How to use itIceberg model consists of four levels:
Looking below individual events, you can see trends over time—patterns. They are the clue for understanding the system structures that are behind those patterns. Structures are the relationships and feedback loops inside a system. These structures are in turn based on the underlying mental models of people.
Events and patterns show you what is happening. Structures and mental models tell you why it's happening.
The deeper you can go in the iceberg, the more leverage you'll have.
Iceberg model is a tool that allows you to shift your perspective and see beyond the immediate events that everyone notices. It helps you to uncover root causes of why those events happen. That's possible by looking at deeper levels of abstraction within the system that are not immediately obvious.
How to use itIceberg model consists of four levels:
- Visible events
- Patterns
- Structures
- Mental models
Looking below individual events, you can see trends over time—patterns. They are the clue for understanding the system structures that are behind those patterns. Structures are the relationships and feedback loops inside a system. These structures are in turn based on the underlying mental models of people.
Events and patterns show you what is happening. Structures and mental models tell you why it's happening.
The deeper you can go in the iceberg, the more leverage you'll have.
Some of the things I have learned are:
1. Do this together with the manager. The diagram is not the important part of this exercise. This is about helping the manager to see their service from a systemic perspective. I have tried to create one myself, them present it to the manager - that has never worked.
2. It is their journey of discovery. Whatever they decide should go in the diagram, goes in. It is then up to me to help them to see form the team, that they need to modify it. Its content demonstrates the way that I have worked with them, and what is their understanding. It often takes time, and I sometimes ask them to put it on their wall, so that they can look at it and modify it over a series of days in their own time.
3. This helps me to understand how deep I can work with them from a systems thinking sense.
The result of the system picture should help the manager to understand something about how their thinking influences the design of the service and the behaviour of their staff. I then use this picture to point to modifying their thinking, so that they can then undertake a Experiment for a new service design.
1. Do this together with the manager. The diagram is not the important part of this exercise. This is about helping the manager to see their service from a systemic perspective. I have tried to create one myself, them present it to the manager - that has never worked.
2. It is their journey of discovery. Whatever they decide should go in the diagram, goes in. It is then up to me to help them to see form the team, that they need to modify it. Its content demonstrates the way that I have worked with them, and what is their understanding. It often takes time, and I sometimes ask them to put it on their wall, so that they can look at it and modify it over a series of days in their own time.
3. This helps me to understand how deep I can work with them from a systems thinking sense.
The result of the system picture should help the manager to understand something about how their thinking influences the design of the service and the behaviour of their staff. I then use this picture to point to modifying their thinking, so that they can then undertake a Experiment for a new service design.
The picture itself is not the picture, The systems picture is that which is in the managers head! Please recognise that the picture simply is a representation of the managers worldview and paradigm, together with the summary of the systemic description.
A Real Example
The Theory Behind This
Anthropologist Edward T. Hall developed the Cultural Iceberg Model in the 1970s as an analogy for the cultural codes that prevail in any society. It is now widely used to help illustrate one of the fundamental concepts behind systems thinking. It is described as an integrated model of systems thinking.
The system picture I describe here is not a recognised systems thinking method, but a description I use to emphasise its purpose. This picture uses:
Cognitive maps
Rich pictures
Iceberg model
The models are not important, what is important are the concepts behind the models, and the emergence of the concepts that the manager absorbs.
The system picture I describe here is not a recognised systems thinking method, but a description I use to emphasise its purpose. This picture uses:
Cognitive maps
Rich pictures
Iceberg model
The models are not important, what is important are the concepts behind the models, and the emergence of the concepts that the manager absorbs.