Global Leaders Must be Systems Thinkers. This is a Problem. What to do about it.

Two cognitive approaches are described about how people including global organizational leaders understand, formulate and try to intervene and solve problems. The prevailing, conventional approach is based on analytic thinking, established 400 years ago. A second approach is systemic thinking which is less than 100 years old, and unlikely to be taught, learned or applied. Increasing evidence about the nature of problems experienced by global leaders is that the context in which problems are occurring is volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous and hyperconnected (VUCAH). While analytic thinking, methods and tools are appropriate and effective for problems in contexts that are stable, structured, controllable and predictable, this thinking is ineffective and can make the problem worse when the context is VUCAH. Instead, these kinds of “wicked” and “messy” problematic situations - which are non-linear, interdependent and involve people with individual purposes - require systems thinking and the methods and tools informed by this mode of cognition. Suggestions about what to do about the challenges of learning and applying systems thinking are made.