Charts – How They Help People Understand Systems PLUS Examples from the Breakout Session

Chart (also called tables) help people understand systems and build on each other’s knowledge.

This webpage provides:

§ Seeing Omitted Issues by Using Charts – An Example (with Thanks to those Participants)

§ Mock-Up of the Chart Based on the Issue of Retention Discussed in the Breakout Session

§ Other Examples of How to Use the Charts

§ What Methods Does Dӧrner Offer to Help You Work With Systems?

Seeing Omitted Issues by Using Charts – An Example (with Thanks to those Participants)

Charts let people see the whole—including issues omitted from the original chart. For example, the participants in the breakout session suggested adding several customers/issues to the left column. With thanks to those participants, those new items are in rows 4, 7, 8, 9, 10. (Click here for a printable PDF of the chart below.)

Looking at Customer Service in Varied Fields – A visual to help you answer this question: “If students aren't the customers of the university, who are?” (More)

With color coding marked row by row to help you avoid “‘similarity matching,’[1] that is, a tendency to respond to similarities more than to differences.

Customers (Users, Clients, Stakeholders) and Issues	Storefront Retail	Attorney in Private Practice	Local Political Campaigns	Product Development-Custom		Corporate Training	Higher Education
Customers (Users, Clients, Stakeholders) and Issues	Storefront Retail	Attorney in Private Practice	Local Political Campaigns	Hardware	Software	Corporate Training	Higher Education
1. Customer as user?	Shopper	Varied clients	Client: Candidate	Operators, plant	User/operator	Employee	Student
a. Commitment by the user?	a. Almost always	a. Almost always	a. Almost always	a. Always	a. Almost always	a. Almost always	a. Varies
b. Preparation of the user?	b. Almost always	b. Occasionally	b. If incumbent	b. Always	b. Almost always	b. Almost always	b. Varies
c. User as part of product?	c. If focus groups	c. Always	c. Always	c. Often	c. Almost always	c. Almost always	c. Almost always
2. Customer as who pays?	Shopper	Client	Client: Candidate	Company	Company	Corporation	Student, parents
3. Customer who may help to pay the bill?	Varies	Taxpayers if type of case/relatives	Donors	Taxpayers if gov. contract	Taxpayers if gov. contract	Rarely	Almost always taxpayers
4. Customer as mandates for required action (funded or not)?	If larger business	Varies	Varies	Varies	Varies	Varies	Almost always
5. Customer as creator of the product/service	Business owner; vendors	Rarely	Consultant	Manufacturer/ consultant	Programmers – patents[2]	In-house or vendor	Almost always faculty[3]
6. Customer as the field of knowledge behind the product/service?	Never	For attorneys, the law—our first allegiance	Rarely	Rarely[4]	Rarely	Rarely	For professors, almost always their disciplines
7. Customer as support staff?	Varies	Varies	Varies - may be volunteers	Varies with industry	Varies with industry	Varies with industry	Always, especially Student Services
8. Customer as leaders/managers?	If larger business	Not applicable	Rarely	Managers	Managers	Managers	Administrators
9. Customer as a board?	Rarely	Not applicable	Rarely	If incorporated	If incorporated	If incorporated	Board of Trustees
10. Customer as mission statement?	Rarely	Rarely	Rarely	Varies	Varies	Varies	Almost always
11. Customer as the regulator (such as a certifier, accreditor, or standards organization)?	Regulators - If BBB member	Texas Bar Association	Regulators –Texas Ethics Commission	Manufacturer; regulators	Technical or industry standards	Never	Accreditors; some regulators/industry standards as well
12. Customer as the region?
a. Need for qualified workers?	a. Never	a. Occasionally	a. If client issue	a. Never	a. Never	a. Never	a. Often¹ to Always²
b. Need for good jobs?	b. Never	b. Occasionally	b. If client issue	b. Never	b. Never	b. Never	b. Often¹ to Always²
c. Need for safe communities?	c .Never	c. Occasionally	c. If client issue	c. Never	c. Never	c. Never	c. Often¹ to Always²
d. Need for a solid tax base?	d. Never	d. Occasionally	d. If client issue	d. Never	d. Never	d. Never	d. Always
13. Customer as the nation’s economic competitiveness?	Occasionally (Walmart effect)	Occasionally	Almost always	Never	Never	Never	All customers above
14. Customer as the nation’s decision-making in a republic?	Never	Occasionally	Almost always	Never	Never	Never	All customers above
15.The product/service is
a. For short-term use?	a. Almost always	a. Always	a. Almost always	a. Occasionally	a. Rarely	a. Almost always	a. Occasionally
b. For long-term use?	b. Rarely	b. Always	b. Occasionally	b. Always	b. Almost always	b. Rarely	b. Almost always
c. On-going but changing?	c. Almost always	c. On-going only	c. If incumbent	c. Rarely	c. Almost always	c. Rarely	c. Almost always
16. Measurement of the user as part of the product and of the product/service is?	Transparent, and the shoppers got what they wanted	Transparent, and it has public records	Transparent, and it has constant media	Transparent, and it has constant metrics	Intransparent, but it has metrics and an outage system	Intransparent, but the company got what it wanted	Intransparent and in transition
17. Rewards of success go to?	Business owner	Both client and attorney	Both client and consultant	Company	Client, but varies with the founder	Corporation	All customers above
18. Risks from failure go to?	Depends on contract, liability	Attorney: 20% Client: 80%	Consultant: 20%; Client: 80%	Depends on contract, liability	Depends on contract, liability	Corporation	All customers above[5]

1 With colleges and universities often serving this purpose 2 With community colleges focusing on teaching, rather than research, and serving this purpose from their beginning - Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2011 - Column data provided by P. Batres, L. Clark, and E. McLane

Mock-Up of the Chart Based on the Issue of Retention Discussed in the Breakout Session

This example shows a college that determined that it had a retention problem in math. The college administration went to the math faculty and encouraged them to come up with a solution. The faculty proposed a 4^th hour of class as a required math lab for this 3-hour class. Collaboration continued to solve this problem; for example, administration dealt with the funding. Refine the plan by using the chart to think through all the issues to see if it works for all of the customers of higher education.

Click here for an example of using the chart in this way and here for the longer notes you write on the second sheet.

Other Examples of How to Use the Charts

Charts can let people collaborate while thinking about all the parts of complex systems. Some possible examples are:

Explore what’s the difference between past mandates in higher education (such as the GI Bill) and any more current mandate by looking at their consequences on all of the customers of higher education.
For this one, to make this easier, here is a PDF with blank space added to the revised chart shown above, the chart with the additional rows, including the row for mandates.

Something to consider: A look at the consequences of these mandates, especially in the public school, over time might show that some of the problems are unintended consequences of intended reforms.
If your college is seeing that there may be a need to “re-teach students about what education is” (More) and you have identified that one of the issues is a misunderstanding about student evaluations of faculty (More), then explore what might be done to keep the value of those evaluations without the misunderstandings. What could be done that would work for administrators, faculty, students, the college mission, and all of the other customers of higher education—including “what education is”?
Consider a pilot project on the “flipped classroom” seems to be working because it seems to deal directly or indirectly with many of the issues identified with students today (More). It seems to provide the time for students to get the practice they need—and to find out the specific piece of information that they did not know. It lets students work with a teacher or together but have a teacher there as a resource. It seems to be the only way to reach some community college students who go directly from a block of classes to a job. (For an introduction to the “flipped classroom,” see “The Flipped Classroom” at http://educationnext.org/the-flipped-classroom/.)

Examine the goals that led to the idea of the pilot project in the context of all of the customers of higher education. If the idea still seems good, see what would need to happen to have a pilot project that would work for all of the customers of higher education, including students. See if there are “time lags” or other issues that would determine when to measure whether the pilot met the goals (More).

What Methods Does Dӧrner Offer to Help You Work With Systems?

Dörner provides many methods to help us understand and act usefully with systems:

Methods with interrelated variables (also available from Slide 6)
Methods with analogy and other basics (also available from Slide 7)
Methods with working with change over time (also available from Slide 8).

For information or problems with this link, please email using the email address below.

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
Last Updated:	2012 – 06/04
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/