Integrating the "Hard" and "Soft" Sides of Systems Thinking - A Case Study in New Zealand Local Government

During 1999 a medium sized City Council was faced with major challenges as a result of its Long Term Financial Strategy (LTFS). Initial work indicated that if the required developments, primarily in terms of infrastructure requirements, were to be met then the Council was going to be faced with unacceptable rises in debt and rates. As a result a major project was initiated which had as its major focus a sustainable reduction in operating expenses of $2,000,000 per annum. For a number of reasons the Council did not want to take a narrow cost-cutting approach. What it wanted to do was use the project as a mechanism for taking a fundamental look at the organisation, using the consulting team as ‘coaches’ providing staff with the knowledge and skills to undertake the work themselves. This coaching takes place within three areas; process improvement, change management and systems thinking. Faced with complex issues and a client that wanted to take a systems perspective an approach was developed which combined Soft Systems Methodology with that of System Dynamics. This paper describes the framework that was used to integrate the two approaches and the work that resulted from it.