What Are Management Systems? How They Drive Organizational Success
What are management systems? Systems to manage organizations. What are systems? My favourite example is a car. A car is made up of many parts. Up to 20,000 in internal combustion engine vehicles. Maybe only a few thousand in electric vehicles. Some of those parts are very expensive. Like the engine and transmission in an internal combustion engine vehicle. Or the battery in an electric vehicle. Some parts are much cheaper. Mirrors or tires. The thing about a system like a car is that the car needs all the parts working together to achieve the one ultimate purpose – Transportation. Imagine a car without tires or with bad tires or broken windows or no mirrors? Even though these are relatively cheap parts in a car, without them, the experience would not be desirable or maybe not even possible. When these are all tuned together to achieve that one ultimate purpose the result can be very pleasant and very helpful.
Here is what ChatGPT gave me: A system is a set of interconnected components that work together to form a complex whole, functioning in a coordinated manner to achieve a common goal or set of objectives. This is also important: these components can be physical or conceptual and are often categorized into inputs, processes, outputs, and feedback mechanisms. I like Plan – Do – Check – Act.
In an organization, the management system is a collection of Leadership, Policy, Procedures, Commitments, Resources, and Competent Team members. Together, planning and then executing to achieve a desired outcome. Applying corrective action as needed. Imagine an organization functioning in a coordinated manner to achieve a common goal or set of objectives. Does that sound desirable or helpful to you?
ISO has standards like 14001 for environmental management system, 9001 about quality, 45001 about safety and health, 50001 about energy management and there are more. They are a bargain. Another option is to buy and read Smart Climate Moves at https://greensky.ca/smartclimatemoves to develop your own climate action and resilience management system.
‘Theme of the Week” – Evidence of extreme weather!
