Episode #73. Systems, Value & Action: Organizational Design with Mike Jones

Listen to the episode here:

This episode has been reposted from Strategy Meets Reality Podcast.

How do organizations create meaningful value in a world that’s complex, nonlinear, and constantly changing?

In this episode of The Value Creators Podcast, Hunter Hastings talks with Mike Jones — consultant, organizational psychologist, and host of Strategy Meets Reality — about systems thinking, value creation, and practical implementation. Mike explains why older, linear management models let people down in adaptive environments, how leaders should think about value exchange and asset stewardship, and why action and learning matter more than perfect forecasting.

Key insights include:

• Why systems thinking is essential for organizations operating in a complex, adaptive world.
  
• How value is discovered through exchange and experience—not merely engineered inside firms.
  
• Why action, not endless planning, generates the information leaders need to adapt and create value.
  

This episode is for founders and leaders who want frameworks that actually work in messy, real-world organizations.

Resources:

➡️ Learn What They Didn’t Teach You In Business School: The Value Creators Online Business Course

Learn more about Strategy Meets Reality Podcast

Connect with Hunter Hastings on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Value Creators on Substack

Knowledge Capsule

1. Systems Thinking Is the Right Mental Model

• Organizations are adaptive systems (not machines).
  
• Systems change in response to internal and external signals.
  
• Leaders must design for adaptation, not for control.
  

2. Old Management Models Are Becoming Obsolete

• 19th/20th-century function-based organizations are designed for continuity and assume predictability.
  
• Those models prioritize control, measurement and efficiency in a stable environment.
  
• In dynamic markets, those assumptions are wrong – they cause mismatch and brittleness.
  

3. Value Is Discovered, Not Merely Produced

• Value emerges through exchanges and customer experience relative to customer expectations and aspirations.
  
• Producers can’t unilaterally declare value—customers reveal it through choices.
  
• Pricing is downstream of the value exchange; customer response validates value.
  

4. Value Exchange and the Customer Experience

• The value exchange is followed by a value experience that determines repeat behavior.
  
• Consistently meeting expectations in experience is central to retention and referrals.
  
• Design and operations must orchestrate both the exchange and the subsequent experience – even those parts of it that are invisible to the producer..
  

5. Asset Stewardship Matters for Sustained Value

• Creating less value means that assets have depreciated.
  
• Neglecting infrastructure or capabilities reduces the customer experience.
  
• Investment in assets is an investment in future value creation.
  

6. Teams Need Clarity, Roles and Autonomy

• Clear role definition and trust among team members enable fast, coordinated action.
  
• Self-organizing teams reduce the friction of top-down control.
  
• Empowered teams adapt quicker to changing conditions.
  

7. Action Over Endless Analysis

• Action creates evidence: you learn by doing, not by over-modeling.
  
• Speed of iteration produces information to update beliefs and strategy.
  
• Execution (tested action) beats perfect plans in uncertain contexts.
  

8. Failure Is Informational, Not Just Negative

• Small experiments reveal what customers do and don’t value.
  
• Failure is a feedback and learning mechanism that refines hypotheses.
  
• Low-cost tests reduce downside while increasing learning velocity.
  

9. Leadership Is About Intent and Moral Commitment

• Values and intent shape how organizations interpret signals.
  
• Leaders’ moral framing (why they create value) affects long-run choices.
  
• Purpose-aligned decisions sustain culture through ambiguity.
  

10. Institutions & Policy Create the Operating Environment

• Policy layers and management rules can add friction and cost.
  
• Policy chaos raises the cost and risk of investment.
  
• Entrepreneurs must design-in resilience given institutional uncertainty.
  

11. Capital Allocation Requires Courage and Judgment

• Capital must be deployed without perfect knowledge; courage is a factor.
  
• Investors and entrepreneurs balance risk, timing, and learning horizons.
  
• Resource commitment is necessary for the discovery process.
  

12. Organizations Must Design for Continuous Adaptation

• Systems of review (after-action learning) are essential for improvement.
  
• Simplicity of communication and clarity of purpose reduce internal noise.
  
• The work of leaders is to enable learning at scale and speed, not to try to eliminate uncertainty.