Is it people or the systems?
I came across something a while ago that stated that most organisational problems are due to poorly designed systems rather than issues with people. "What a load of bollocks," I thought, "of course, people are the problem". Humans are complicated. We are sophisticated, emotionally wired beings with desires and wants — we are not robots. Human mistakes and problems occur because our emotional brain can override the rational brain at the best of times. And ultimately humans are the ones who build the systems in the first place.
But how many of us have been frustrated with poorly designed processes and systems? Quality assurance and consistency may be compromised without a well-designed system. Performance and limitations are highly dependent on what the system allows us to do in any organisation. A well-built system can improve efficiency, saves time, and harmonise communication, team culture, and user experience across the company’s services. It is more often convenient for leaders and system designers to say that problems and bottlenecks are due to employees, rather than examining the systems. And if we continue to punish people for those slips and mistakes, we will stop hearing about them until the problem becomes too big to hide. As W. Edwards Deming would say "A bad system will beat a good person every time."
At Blackmill, we usually say: it is almost always the systems. We try to assume positive intent, and if the systems are poorly designed, then they allow for mistakes to happen. Instead we can look at human errors as an opportunity to learn about the system and how it can be improved.
Have you encountered situations where a system enabled mistakes to happen? And what did it teach you?