Self-Centeredness- A Symptom Of Thinking Small In Business Process ReengineeringConnections

Self-centeredness has become a staple of our modern society and causes grave concern in business process reengineering. Rare nowadays are situations where a person gives up on personal ambition to aid in the betterment of another individual. It does happen but at far less frequency than someone who looks out only for his or her personal interests.

From a business process perspective, humans make decisions about the actions that they take. Before taking an action, one's mind processes multiple inputs about a given situation as part of the decision-making process. If the inputs into the mind are limited, than a particular decision may be made that is not an optimal one. For instance, failing to think outside one's individual role within an organization may lead that person to provide short-sighted input in a business process reengineering effort. Such input, when given in the absence of the larger context can be harmful if not undermine the entire process.





Even outside of business you can take almost any wrongdoing that you can think of and put it through this systems thinking filter. Embezzlement, bullying, lying, stealing, cheating, etc all make the grade for self-centered acts. The bully who beats up another child does so to make him or herself feel good without regard to the impact on the other child. Embezzlement stuffs the pockets of the embezzler to the detriment of the organization from which money was taken.

What if the bully was able to consciously visualize that there is an impact on the life of the child that he or she is bullying? What if an embezzler actually thought about the ramifications to the organization from which cash was siphoned away from? The ability to think at a higher level about a situation (systems thinking) has the possibility to change the inputs that are sent into the brain of an individual.

By changing inputs, there is at least a chance that behavior might change as well. I won't go so far as to claim that systems thinking will fix everything in this world or in your company. In fact, many people and employees think systemically yet those inputs to the decision-making process do not stop bad decisions from being made. However, systems thinking is a skill that when activated can assure that at least the right inputs are present in the mind. By activating systems thinking in the mind of an individual, we can begin to make a difference in one individual at a time and in one business process reengineering effort at a time.

Dr. Brad Semp is a business process reengineering expert and a sought after speaker, coach and consultant for entrepreneurs and corporations on Design for Action (DfA) techniques. Download his popular free report titled the "Action Inaction Syndrome" where he challenges you to transform the way that you design your actions and shows you how to produce more results with less effort and in a shorter amount of time. Visit http://BradSemp.com