Slides from my talk at Last Conference, Melbourne 2023. Talk was based on work I did at Southern Cross, and shows how to build alignment among disparate stakeholders, even when they have differing agendas. Systems thinking is the driving force behind the approach.

1. Creating Unity Through Systems
Thinking
A Case Study

2. Noah Cantor
Working in Tech (1999)
Agile (2008)
Systems Thinking (2010)
People (2010)
Coach
Consultant
Tech Leader
Trainer
Size: 6-150,000
Non-profits, start-ups, enterprises

3. Have you ever suggested an improvement
only to have it fall on deaf ears?

4. The Engagement
Conduct a diagnostic of our Technical Practices
Identify areas for improvement
Provide actionable recommendations

5. The Problem
People don’t know how to make progress
Hard for people to do their jobs

6. What Would You Do?

7. Questions
What could we improve?
What did we miss?
Are there ways we could shorten the timeframe without
compromising results?

9. What We Agreed To Do

10. Agree on the Problem

12. ?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?

16. Agree on the Solution

21. Experiments
Hypothesis
Success identifiers
Failure identifiers
Unintended consequences
Support needed for success

23. Questions
What could we improve?
What did we miss?
Are there ways we could shorten the timeframe without
compromising results?
Audience questions

24. References
Fair Process: https://hbr.org/2003/01/fair-process-
managing-in-the-knowledge-economy
Goldratt: The Goal. It’s Not Luck.
Dettmer: The Logical Thinking Process
Deming: The New Economics
Pink: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

25. Thank You
Website: https://www.noahcantor.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncantor
Blog: https://www.medium.com/@nrcantor
Email: noah@noahcantor.com