When you step into Murray & Roberts’ placid offices in Bedfordview, you would not guess that the company is awash in turbulence.

Even more astonishing is that this is precisely the environment that top executives of this innovative engineering and contracting industrial group prefer. “We want to make people comfortable with being uncomfortable,” explains group chief executive, Brian Bruce.

Such controlled chaos is part of a revolutionary plan to rebuild Murray & Roberts after it was virtually declared dead three years ago. Part of this controlled chaos is a brand new way of thinking which is sweeping the organisation – systems thinking.

Strategic systems thinking is about setting a long-term goal, a vision that becomes the starting point from which you plot backwards to where you are now. This maps out what has to be accomplished to reach that goal.

“Once you set the targets – and they have to be stretch targets – you can no longer avoid the tough decisions necessary to get there,” adds Brian.

The results of this process differ markedly from traditional analytical thought which would typically generate a series of incremental improvements on what currently exists. Systems thinking creates a complete dislocation with current thinking.

People yearn to see the world in simple terms, and in this environment analytical linear thinking works. But, the world is a complex system, and linear thinking is likely to miss the “big picture”.

Thinking simplistically creates an artificial sense of simplicity. Complexity does exist, and should not be feared but understood. One of the important contributions of systems thinking is in helping to map out complexity by looking at the nature of relationships.

The toughest part is establishing agreement on the long-term vision, and this is the part that requires leadership. It is a process in which the interests of key parties must be taken into account. “We have worked hard to develop the aspirations of key members of the organisation and have then set stretch targets towards that aspiration,” says Brian.

At the beginning of the Rebuilding Murray & Roberts plan, Brian recognised that the company's immediate past could hold no relevance for its future direction.

“Initially we looked elsewhere for world class best practices and from this we set a growth trajectory for the company which only a few colleagues besides myself believed was possible at that time,” says Brian.

"These targets were seen as a threat. But instead of tackling the threat head on, we applied systems thinking and in this manner, unlocked enormous value. A new breed of executive has emerged from the organisation.

“Since then we have progressively exceeded all of the objectives we set and this year will be no exception. We have engaged a process in partnership with A T Kearney and Baulderstone Hornibrook of Australia to look beyond those best practices currently available in South Africa and develop our own,” he says.

Executive coach Elana Godley adds: “One of the precepts of systems thinking is not to try and resolve problems, because a huge amount of energy can be wasted in this manner. Instead, by looking at the entire system, you can identify what is causing the problem to exist and by doing something completely different, the problem dissolves. You must treat a problem as a symptom of the bigger picture.”

This is the type of process that the entire construction industry needs to experience.

“If the construction industry in South Africa simply waits for things to happen, nothing will happen. The country lacks the capacity to build at the level necessary to change this economy.

“But it is a system, and we are challenged to understand the inter-relationships between all of the constituent parts,” says Brian.

Just like Murray & Roberts, the entire industry is currently experiencing a dislocation in thinking.

Brian says the first response to any question posed should be “why?” Engineers and accountants tend to think analytically. Given a problem, they will find a solution. But in systems thinking you are trained to ask why there is a problem in the first place. By looking behind the apparent problem, you will find something else which can make the problem simply disappear. Elana adds: “An important aspect in systems thinking is getting people to understand the role they have played in creating the problem.”

One of Murray & Roberts' most enthusiastic systems thinkers is commercial executive, Gordon Taylor. “To be a great contracting company, Murray & Roberts should demonstrate ability not only in the negotiation of contracts but also in the resolution of disputes or contractual and commercial problems.” Ripe ground indeed for the application of systems thinking, as the focus is not so much on resolving disputes as preventing them and managing the relationships.

“Regularly, negotiations or efforts to resolve disputes become unstuck because of the focus of both parties on the financial gain or loss associated with a position or outcome,” says Gordon. "This can be overcome by placing alternatives on the table which reflect the perceived benefits for the other party."

Brian agrees, relating that his personal experience in resolving a number of major disputes in Murray & Roberts, notably, Inanda-Wiggins Tunnels and the DORTS Train contract, proved that there are win-win options in dispute resolution.

Systems thinking has also been applied in the development of an Enterprise Resource Planning system for Murray & Roberts. The traditional methodology has been to buy an off-the-shelf system and tailor it to the company, often with massive problems of compatibility. Murray & Roberts has set a long-term vision for its enterprise system, and its chosen partner, J D Edwards, together with Unisys and Microsoft, will deliver exactly that.

Gordon is also designing a knowledge repository. “Traditionally, at the end of every project there would be a close out meeting at which the team would distil the learning points. We have now changed this so that the distillation occurs not just at the close out, but at every meeting where data is continuously captured. The idea is that the process is not retrospective but turns us into a learning organisation.” 

What is Systems Thinking?

In 1956 MIT's professor Jay Forrester sought a better way of testing social systems, in the same way that ideas can be tested in engineering.

Traditional analysis focuses on separating the individual pieces of what is being studied; in fact the word “analysis” actually comes from the root meaning “to break into constituent parts”.

Systems thinking, in contrast, focuses on how the thing being studied interacts with the other constituents of a system (a set of elements that interact to produce behaviour) of which it is a part.

This means that instead of isolating smaller and smaller parts of a system, systems thinking works by expanding its view to take into account larger and larger numbers of interactions as the study progresses – in other words, “the big picture”.

• Brian Bruce worked with Jay Forrester and Peter Senge at MIT in 1985.

Systems thinking in action 

An example of systems thinking is in the design of a new pesticide. A researcher, commissioned to develop a pesticide to kill unusually resistant insects, would inevitably design an especially strong pesticide.

However, it may be that this new pesticide is responsible for killing more of a different breed of insect that feeds on the target insect. The new pesticide may initially produce the desired result, but over time the target insect builds up resistance to the pesticide, and by now its predators have been significantly reduced in number.

The result? An explosion of the population of the target insect.

A systems thinker would look at the ultimate objective, less crop damage, rather than concentrating on destroying the target insect. Researchers would consider other solutions, such as increasing the number of predator insects or developing strains of crop that are more resistant to insect damage, for instance.

 The first response to any question posed should be “why?” 

A systems thinker would look at the ultimate objective.