John Leggate is group vice president, Digital Business, for BP. In this role, he is responsible for digital technology and e-business across the whole company, ensuring an integrated transition as the corporation moves from e-business discovery to deployment. John is a member of the BP Group Senior Leadership Team and served a key role in shaping the company's strategies following the BP-Amoco Merger. He has a particular interest in high-performance teams and organizations, the management of organizational change, effective leadership, and organizational learning.

John is a keynote speaker at this year's Systems Thinking in Action Conference. Following are some of the ways BP is changing how its teams work together and communicate in designing a sustainable corporate future.

Leverage Points: Can you talk about the kinds of cutting-edge technologies you are developing to handle the complexity of reaching out to local communities, customers, contractors, partners, governments, and employees? Why is it important for an energy company to do so?

John Leggate: Let me deal with the second part of your question first. There are several reasons why it's important for an energy company to build relationships with these groups. First, as a global company, we are part of, and touch, the lives of many communities in at least 100 countries. And energy can easily become an emotive topic. So we have to conduct our operations in harmony with those communities and show them that we are a progressive business.
Continued

During such a downturn, it's tempting to "firefight" organizational problems; however, such an approach can be unproductive or even harmful. It's far more effective to examine strategic decisions through both a short- and long-term lens. By taking a deeper view, both you and your organization can "keep your heads" and not resort to ill-considered, knee-jerk reactions that ultimately make things worse.

As the challenges and pressures facing organizations rise, systems thinking is becoming an even more valuable skill to sustain a viable organization. This year's conference can help you:

• Increase your capability to look at a situation from multiple points of view, enabling you to determine the highest leverage actions and opportunities
• Bolster your ability to seek fundamental, not event-level, solutions in the face of your toughest challenges
• Show you how to identify and avoid unintended
consequences of decisions
• Help you uncover your assumptions and understand how different strategies work and why
• Provide a practice field to test various strategies against potential future scenarios
• Sensitize you to the crucial role that productive conversations play in team-building and continuous learning
• Give you opportunities to network and share important ideas with other organizational leaders
• Prepare you and your business for the next upswing, by uncovering potentially counterproductive strategies that were masked by the growing economy

AUTHORS' NIGHT PREVIEW
I Will Not Die an Unlived Life and
When a Butterfly Sneezes

Since 1996, the conference has featured authors who are changing the organizational learning landscape. This year, we're pleased to highlight Dawna Markova and Linda Booth Sweeney.

Dawna Markova's I Will Not Die an Unlived Life is a deeply personal book that explores five stages of coming to live "on purpose"—through the lens of Dawna's own experiences and her 28-year struggle with cancer. She reflects on—and asks each of us to consider—questions such as, "What have I been given with which to give? Where do my talents and the needs of the world intersect?" If you're willing to explore potentially rough and uncharted territory, you, too, can "tremble on that edge" of new possibility with her through powerful questions for reflection. Dawna has authored or coauthored six books, including Random Acts of Kindness and An Unused Intelligence.

In When a Butterfly Sneezes: A Guide for Helping Kids Explore Interconnections in Our World Through Favorite Stories, Linda Booth Sweeney explores key systems thinking concepts gleaned from 12 popular children's stories. She outlines a step-by-step process and discussion guide for understanding our interdependent, complex world—using books that are likely already on your child's bookshelf! For example, did you know that The Cat in the Hat Comes Back can be used to understand "Fixes That Fail"? Or that If You Give a Mouse a Cookie illustrates simple inter-connectedness? Linda's comprehensive guide can be used to teach a wide array of systems thinking principles. She is coauthor of the Systems Thinking Playbook series.

We hope you join us for fabulous discussions at Authors' Night!

FROM THE FIELD
What have your colleagues said about their Systems Thinking in Action Conference experience?

"I've never been to a conference or seminar where I felt as welcome, or in any classroom where I felt I'd soaked up as much learning. I felt 'at home,' in tune, and as if I'd only taken away a fraction of the knowledge offered. I'll be back this year."
—Thomas Buckner, Boeing Corp.

"The quality of keynote speakers and learning opportunities are fantastic. The best conference of its kind, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in this field."
—Wendy Skinner, Sabre Inc.

"This conference remains fresh for me after almost a decade of attendance. A unique opportunity to meet old and new friends who share a passion for becoming more skillful people and for creating more effective and humane organizations."
—Michael Pergola, First Union Corp.