Original Business Discussion
Watch the Video a Med Star Story and complete the following:
• Identify three to five major concepts of systems thinking and then explain how they were applied to the Med Star Story.
• Systems Thinking is an invention of Peter Senge. Using the class readings compare how this approach worked better for Med Star than Fayol's Functions did?
Video: A Med Star Story- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeldVu-3DpM
PLEASE RESPOND TO EACH STUDENT
STUDENT 1:
• Laurel Feld.
Three major concepts of systems thinking are:
1. A commitment to learning methods for improvement.
2. The acknowledgement that being incorrect is a possibility.
3. An openness to accept the viewpoints of many different participants in the system in order to see the whole picture.
(Senge, n.d.).
The leaders at Med Star were not happy with the idea of pointing a finger at one individual and blaming her for the error. They wanted to locate the reason for the error in order to learn how it could be prevented in the future. They acknowledged the fact that the error could have come from a source other than human error. When the error occurred a second time, they realized that there could be something wrong with the diagnostic tool that was being used. They sought advice from other employees at Med Star who were able to offer input as to potential reasons why the error had occurred and to offer solutions s to how to prevent it in the future.
Fayol's Five Functions of Management include: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling (Business, 2011). Using these functions would not have produced the same positive results for Med Star that the systems thinking approach did. Following the prescribed standard steps would have resulted in the nurse receiving disciplinary action, as dictated by the rules. She would have been penalized for her error and no inquiry would have been made into a possible technological fault. The faulty diagnostic tool would not have been discovered and the error likely would have been repeated, resulting in possible harm to patients.
References:
Business Mate.Org. (2011, May 16). 5 functions of management. Retrieved from https://www.businessmate.org/Article.php?ArtikelId=228
Senge, P. (n.d.). Navigating webs of interdependence [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.mutualresponsibility.org/science/what-is-systems-thinking-peter-senge-explains-systems-thinking-approach-and-principles
STUDENT 2:
Benjamin Al.
Systems thinking relies on collective knowledge and gathering a complete analysis from different users and different departments (Senge, 2017). Individual intelligence or smart individuals does not count as much as combining intelligence from users or those impacted by systems. Interdependence is the foundation of systems theory. In the Med Star Story (Annie's Story: How A System's Approach Can Change Safety Culture, 2017) , a medical readout showed glucose alert as high, although the glucose readout was low. Another nurse made the same mistake. The first nurse was disciplined and suspended. A management person asked to review the human and safety factors associated with use of the medical readout. The fault turned out not to be reside in one individual but was a system wide problem in the design of the machine that it was giving false readings. The nurse's discipline was revoked and using the systems approach they realized in a systems way the design of the medical readout had problems in how to interpret results. Fayol's principles involve orders flowing from the top to the lower levels in a hierarchal framework. Fayol's approach is the opposite of systems theory as it its stresses dependence throughout the organization rather than collective and interdependence order. (Henry Fayol's Fourteen Principles of Management, 2017)
Bibliography
Annie's Story: How A System's Approach Can Change Safety Culture. (2017, March 1). Retrieved from medstar.org: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeldVu-3DpM
Henry Fayol's Fourteen Principles of Management. (2017, March 1). Retrieved from relivingmgaddays.com: https://relivingmbadays.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/henry-fayols-fourteen-principles-of-management/
Senge, P. (2017, March 1). What Is Systems Thinking? Retrieved from mutualresponsibility.org: https://www.mutualresponsibility.org/science/what-is-systems-thinking-peter-senge-explains-systems-thinking-approach-and-principles