【Systems Thinking】Why do people who are a little good at their jobs quit?

In a nutshell

1. Systems thinking can illustrate various problems.
2. People who are a little good at their jobs become unable to do them because they get more and more trivial tasks and eventually lose their sense of purpose.
3. It may be easy to assign tasks to people who are a little good at their jobs, but be careful to balance it with their sense of purpose.

Systems thinking illustrates various problems

In my previous article, I introduced that systems thinking can illustrate various problems. 【Systems Thinking】Why do we drink too much? Why is traffic congestion not solved?

I believe I was able to convey the benefits of systems thinking, especially in the problem of traffic congestion, by being able to illustrate that the expansion of roads can lead to the side effect of an increase in traffic due to improved convenience.

I began to think that systems thinking could be applied to various social problems, and I immediately found an example where it could be applied.

People who are a little good at their jobs eventually quit

In a company, the resignation of a person who is a little good at their job is a risk. The existence of tasks that only that person can do and the fact that there is no one to take on the work that was planned to be entrusted to that person in the future means that the company will incur losses both now and in the future.

But why do people who are a little good at their jobs suddenly quit one day? In fact, if you apply systems thinking, you can start to think that the probability of quitting a job gradually increases, rather than suddenly one day.

• Causal loop diagram of how a person who is a little good at their job comes to quit their job Author's creation

You can see that there are two main types of work in the diagram above.

• Trivial tasks
• Important work

In fact, it can be considered that the amount of these trivial tasks and important work has a positive or negative effect on motivation and greatly affects the probability of quitting a job.

Of course, there are many other causes for the probability of quitting a job besides motivation, such as compensation and human relationships, but here we will simply consider the impact of the job. This is because young people who are generally motivated often seek a sense of purpose in their work.

Let's organize the relationship between [Trivial tasks] and [Important work] below.

Changes that occur when trivial tasks increase

1. When [Trivial tasks] increase, [Useless skills] will increase.
2. When [Useless skills] increase, [Convenience] will increase, but [Motivation] will decrease.

For the person assigning the task, trivial tasks increase the convenience of the recipient and make it easier to proceed with the work, but it lowers the motivation of the person themselves.

Changes that occur when important work increases

1. When [Important work] increases, [Important skills] will increase.
2. When [Important skills] increase, [Convenience] will increase, and [Motivation] will also increase.

For the person assigning the task, important work increases the convenience of the recipient and makes it easier to proceed with the work, and for the recipient, it also brings about motivation as they acquire important skills.

Cautions when assigning work to people who are a little good at their jobs

Let's think from the perspective of the person who assigns work to people who are a little good at their jobs, that is, the boss.

What the boss can control in this mechanism are [Trivial tasks] and [Important work]. In other words, they must consider the balance between trivial tasks and important work and appropriately control the motivation of the person.

A common case seen in the real world is that people who are a little good at their jobs tend to become "handymen."

It is true that people who are a little good at their jobs are valuable, and for their bosses, they are a convenient presence because they can do various tasks.

However, while assigning them many trivial tasks, the person who is a little good at their job may lose their motivation and decide to quit their job without realizing it.

That is why bosses must observe people who are a little good at their jobs and continue to determine whether the balance of work is appropriate for them.

Systems thinking has the merit of combining elements that tend to be considered separately, modeling them, and visualizing them. I highly recommend learning systems thinking in addition to logical thinking.

Aside (Recommended Book)

A recommended design book. It's packed with design tips that you can use forever. I use it often myself.