Leaders of today’s ambitious organisations understand that risk management is inherent to the complex task of evolving to be better. At every critical stage of a change process there’s potential for that process to fail based on a myriad of under-identified factors – not least of which is human nature.
Optima Systems Consultancy apply our unique brand of Systems Thinking to tackle your complex business challenges coherently and comprehensively – and with attention to the necessity of measuring the ROI of business innovation, development and change.
We can work with any business undergoing a time of growth or change to implement those processes more efficiently. Our Systems approach to business consulting means that we insist on viewing the problem end-to-end and within the widest context, ensuring that no potentially critical element is missed. We further know at inherent to business success is an understanding of the human culture involved in an organisation, so we ensure that this is taken into account at each stage.
Our clients benefit from:
- Activity oriented to focus on strategic goals
- Effectiveness improved by better interface risk management – the stages where one set of people or processes hand off to another.
- A unified culture and less cross-functional friction
Systems Thinking for the organisational machine
Optima was formed 8 years ago by a group of expert Systems Engineers with an extensive background in solving complex challenges for critical technological sectors including Defence, Utilities and Civil Nuclear.
Inevitably our Systems insistence on understanding the bigger picture of these projects meant that we became involved in the organisational as well as the technical aspects of the challenges our clients faced. So we have evolved our approach to help complex organisations function effectively as a whole. We do this by making sure we encompass the entirety of the organisational landscape to deliver what’s really needed. Our key expertise is therefore in the systematic organisation and optimisation of complex processes, whether they’re technical or business centric.
Large engineering projects use systems engineering to make sure all the parts fit together as they should, and to ensure the resultant machine is what was needed to start with. It’s a mindset that insists on an end to end viewpoint. Unless you have an overview of every aspect of a complex piece of machinery, you can’t be sure you’ve seen every root cause of a problem – or every possibility to optimise potential.
The analogy with business structure and delivery is clear. A business is a complex machine that relies on its internal construction, its relationship with the outside world, and on the people who keep it running. Systems Thinking allows businesses to identify cause & effect at times of critical change or development, leading to optimised performance, reduced risk, and the resilience to overcome the challenges of an uncertain world.
The people behind the machine
Our end-to-end mindset also incorporates the critical role of human interaction. People aren’t just headcount, they are unique individuals with good and bad days, unpredictable things going on in their personal lives, complex subjective motivations for what they do and how they do it. Yet they are the lifeblood of every organisation, and understanding how each individual functions becomes critical to creating an optimised business process. So, we draw on elements of Emotional Intelligence theory to optimise the critical role played by human behaviour in an organisation.
A Systematic approach
Failure in a complex process almost always happens at the interfaces between one department, person or set of processes, and the next.
Our approach is to map and organise these interfaces so as to understand and minimise the risk of failure. We do this at the start of a process, which gives us the end-to-end overview we insist on, and also allows us to set expectations and frameworks that all stakeholders can work to.
Get in touch:
Could you benefit from experienced Systems Consultancy to help overcome risk management challenges in your organisation? Contact us to discuss your specific requirements and we’ll introduce you to an expert who can help.
