Your name and level carry forward from Month One, but take a moment to confirm them. How you show up in this module depends on where you are leading from.
Select the level that best reflects your current role.
In Month One you did the internal work. You looked at who you are as a leader, how you show up under pressure, what you value, and where your intent and your impact can part ways. That was necessary groundwork.
Month Two turns that lens outward. The question now is not only who are you as a leader, but what is the system you are leading in, and are you solving the right problems inside it?
This month you will learn to frame problems with precision before you try to solve them. You will distinguish symptoms from root causes. You will learn when a technical solution is appropriate and when the challenge you are facing is adaptive and requires something more fundamental.
The thinking you develop here will shape how you approach every challenge in the months ahead. Take your time with it. Diagnosis is not a delay. It is the work.
Before we dive into the tools, take a moment to check where you are with systems thinking today. This is not about proving expertise. It is about noticing where you might need to stretch, and naming where you are already strong. Answer honestly. No one sees your results. This is just for you.
When facing a frustrating issue, how often do you pause to write a clear, neutral problem statement before jumping to solutions?
How often do you catch yourself treating the visible symptom instead of asking what deeper system condition keeps producing it?
When a problem persists despite process fixes, how readily do you recognize it might require behavioral or cultural change instead?
How often do you consider how structure, culture, relationships, and leadership behavior might all be interacting to create the problem?
Before intervening in a recurring issue, how consistently do you ask yourself: am I solving the right problem, or just the loudest one?
Systems Thinking, Problem Framing, and Root Cause Diagnosis teaches you to see problems differently before you try to solve them. Leaders who master this skill stop firefighting and start building systems that do not catch fire as often.
Before you go any further, answer these three questions honestly. You do not need to write them down. You just need to sit with them.
What is one problem in your work that keeps repeating? What have you already tried? And what might you be missing?
Leaders who only respond to what is visible are always managing consequences. Leaders who understand what is below the surface can intervene at the source. The Iceberg Model gives you a four-level framework for seeing the full structure of any problem.
Peter Senge writes that most leadership failures happen not because leaders lack intelligence or effort, but because they focus on events rather than the underlying structures and mental models that produce them. The leverage is not at the top of the iceberg. It is at the bottom.
Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. Doubleday.
For each statement, tap the level of the Iceberg it represents: Event, Pattern, Structure, or Mental Model.
A manager calls an emergency meeting every time a client escalates a complaint.
Client escalations in this organization have increased every quarter for the past year.
There is no defined process for managers to resolve client issues at the site level without escalating to the Director.
Leadership has always believed that the Director should be the final decision-maker on any client-facing issue.
A team member submitted an incorrect report last Friday.
Think of a recurring challenge in your organization. Apply the framework above. Be specific and evidence-based.
Treating a symptom without addressing the cause is the most expensive kind of leadership. It costs time, credibility, and resources, and it leaves the system intact to produce the same symptom again.
For each statement, tap whether it describes a Symptom, a Cause, or a Consequence.
Quarterly engagement scores declined for the third consecutive quarter.
Managers have never received training on how to give effective feedback.
If this pattern continues, two experienced team members have indicated they are considering leaving.
Team members frequently say they do not know what is expected of them.
No clear role descriptions exist for three positions added during the expansion.
Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky write that the single most common leadership mistake is applying a technical fix to an adaptive challenge. The fix provides temporary relief while the underlying condition continues to grow.
Heifetz, R. & Linsky, M. (2002). Leadership on the Line. Harvard Business Review Press.
For each scenario, tap Technical, Adaptive, or Mixed based on what kind of challenge is primarily present.
Staff are not completing required training because the learning management system is difficult to navigate.
A high-performing team member consistently undermines peers in cross-functional meetings.
A new reporting system is being implemented but managers distrust the data it produces.
A team has no standardized intake process for client requests, creating inconsistent service.
Each tool below serves a different diagnostic purpose. Learn what each one does, when to use it, and what it looks like in practice. Every tool except the Five Whys includes an activity so you can try it before you need it.
Choose the problem you framed earlier, or any recurring challenge in your organization.
The problem sits at the head (right). Each colored branch is a category. Dashed lines show specific contributing causes within each category. The goal is to map all possible causes before deciding which to investigate further.
A team is experiencing consistently low scores on internal quality reviews. Using the Fishbone categories above, tap the correct category bone for each contributing cause.
The quality review checklist has not been updated in three years and no longer reflects current standards.
Two of the four reviewers were recently promoted and have not received formal review training.
The review scoring software crashes mid-session, causing reviewers to re-enter data from memory.
Reviewers are notified only 24 hours before a review is due, leaving no time to prepare properly.
Review this simplified current state map for a staff onboarding process. Tap the step where the most significant structural breakdown occurs.
Pareto finding: Addressing delayed response and incorrect information alone would resolve 70% of complaints. That is the starting point for intervention.
A manager tracked causes of team overtime hours over one quarter. The histogram below shows the data. Based on what you see, tap the answer that correctly applies the Pareto Principle.
A manager is about to launch a new shift scheduling system without consulting the team. Imagine it is six months later and the rollout has failed. Which scenario most likely describes what happened?
Include at least one person at a different level than you. Their perspective on the same problem will almost always reveal something you cannot see from where you sit.
If the people who experience this problem most directly were in the room with you right now, what would they say that you have not yet fully considered? And what would that mean for how you have been thinking about the solution?
Urgency and importance are not the same thing. A leader who only responds to what is urgent rarely gets to what is important. Systems thinking helps you see the important before it becomes urgent.
What problem have you been tolerating because it is not yet urgent enough to demand action? What would change if you addressed it now, before it becomes a crisis?
Your Month Two group deliverable is built from the Northstar Case Study you were introduced to in Month One. You are analyzing Alex Morgan's region using the diagnostic tools from this module. This is not a reflection exercise. It is a structured group analysis grounded in the case evidence you have been given.
“What did I learn about the way I typically approach problems?”
“What will I do differently before I try to solve the next issue?”