Your Organization or Business is a system with a system
No. 003
No organization stands alone. Every business, nonprofit, or movement exists within a larger web of relationships, markets, and environments.
In other words: your organization is a system within a system.
We often think of organizations as self-contained — leaders making plans, teams executing tasks, structures producing outcomes. But the reality is more dynamic. Every internal decision is shaped by external forces, and every external shift impacts the internal design.
This is the language of ecosystems.
An ecosystem is a network of interdependent parts that thrive together. A forest is not just trees; it’s soil, water, sunlight, insects, animals, and climate all working in dynamic relationship. Change one part, and the whole system shifts.
Your organization is no different. You are not just a single system — you are part of an ecosystem of clients, partners, industries, technologies, and cultural forces.
Sometimes, you even operate in what ecologists call an ecotone — the transitional space where two ecosystems meet and overlap. Ecotones are rich with possibility but also charged with tension. They are places of both conflict and creativity.
Think of an organization that straddles two worlds:
- A nonprofit navigating both donor expectations and community needs.
- A business balancing legacy practices with emerging technologies.
- A faith-based movement translating ancient convictions into modern cities.
These ecotone spaces are where the future is designed — messy, dynamic, and full of opportunity.
Your Internal System
Inside your organization, you already have a design: structures, processes, rhythms, and culture. These form your internal ecosystem.
But here’s the key: organizations don’t succeed because they eliminate silos. They succeed because they nurture interdependencies.
A business unit or department has value not as an isolated silo, but in how it supports and strengthens the others. Finance enables vision, operations sustains momentum, communications amplifies impact, leadership provides direction. Each part is interdependent, and the health of the whole depends on how well those interdependencies are designed.
And here’s the principle to remember:
Every system is perfectly designed for the results it gets.
If your outcomes aren’t what you hoped for, it’s not bad luck — it’s design. Which means the only way to change results is to redesign the system.
Your External System
Your internal system exists inside a larger external ecosystem: markets, networks, cultural forces, and global shifts. The most resilient organizations are those that see themselves as participants in these larger systems, not isolated actors.
The Implications for Strategy
- No strategy is created in isolation. Your story, design, and legacy are always in conversation with the larger ecosystem.
- Interdependencies are strengths. What looks like redundancy in one area may be resilience when seen as part of the whole.
- Every result has a cause. If your system is producing the wrong results, redesign is required.
- Ecotones are opportunities. Overlapping spaces, though messy, are where innovation is most likely to emerge.
The Question for Leaders
The question is not: How do we protect our organization from the outside world?
The real question is: How do we design our interdependent internal system to thrive within the larger ecosystem?
Because in the end, no organization thrives in isolation. The health of your system is inseparable from the health of the system you belong to.