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You’ve probably heard of Peter Senge’s work (The 5th Disci-pline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, 1st edition. New York: Currency Doubleday, 1994) even if you’ve never heard his name. His breakthrough thinking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in the late 1980s proposed the systems thinking method to help a business become a “learning organization” and to “expand the ability to produce.” Suffice it to say that Senge was named “Strategist of the Century” by the Journal of Business Strategy. That would make Senge the Michael Jordan of Strategy.

One key element of Senge’s systems thinking is the important role of delay: “interruptions in the flow of influence which make the consequences of an action occur.” The best way I know to describe delay in this context is to imagine someone steering a boat in water for the first time. The time between the turning of the wheel and the resulting change of direction is delay. Usually, a first timer experiences wild fluctuations in direction, as he or she continually misjudges and overcompensates due to the lack of timely feedback. Delay causes the system to function inefficiently.

The same phenomenon can be observed in our business systems, too. I’ve seen many small business owners and managers blindsided by their end-of-year profit and loss statements. More often than not, the executives don’t even see this information until well into the next quarter or even next year. They not only are unable to take corrective action in a timely fashion but also often overcompensate, trying to make up for lost time. This only serves to further exacerbate the overall problem. See if any of this sounds familiar: “I want you to cut the entire advertising budget today!” “Close that office!” Or, “Fire everybody in the sales department now!” It doesn’t have to be this way.