Effective leaders do their best to produce and facilitate systems that work together. Read Matthew 12:22-32.

As Jesus continued to demonstrate supernatural power, He healed a man who was demon-possessed, blind and mute. When the religious leaders heard of what had been done they accused Jesus of being a devil to have the power to cast out a devil. Jesus’ comment to this accusation was that “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand” (v. 25). Expanded only slightly, any kingdom or organization, or business, or church or family divided against itself will fall. This is true because all the various parts of an organization affect each other.

A leader’s decisions affects the stakeholders. Read Jonah 1:1-17.

God gave Jonah a command to preach repentance to the Assyrian king and the people living in Nineveh. Jonah chose to go the opposite direction and caught a ship in Joppa bound for the port of Tarshish. God decided to recall Jonah and in the process sent a mighty storm that threatened to sink the ship. Jonah’s decision to run from God threatened the lives of the unsuspecting sailors. The cause of the storm lay with a man they had never met based on his decision he made before the journey began. Jonah became part of the sailors’ system and their lives were dramatically affected.

An important part of a leader’s responsibility is to create structure and organization so their team knows how they fit into the big picture and why they do what they do. Read Ezekiel 40-44.

In the 25th year of exile in Babylon, God appeared to Ezekiel and gave him a vision concerning the structure, organization and operation of the temple when the people returned to Jerusalem. God went into great detail as He described the order and organization that He designed into His temple. This, like many other scriptures, shows just how important structure and organization are in God’s design for leadership. Effective leaders create structure that enhances productivity and nurtures the emotional health of those they lead.

System thinking leaders are keenly aware of how actions in one part of their organization affects outcomes in other parts of the organization. Read Jeremiah 44:11-30.

The remnant of the Jewish people left in Judah after Babylon captured the fortified cities in Judah, including Jerusalem, felt they needed to flee from Judah to Egypt. Jeremiah clearly told them this was against God’s plan but they decided to go to Egypt anyway. When the Jewish exiles arrived in Egypt, they refused to stop worshiping idols. Ultimately, the practice of idolatry by the Jewish people further angered God and led to Egypt’s defeat by Babylon. The practice of idolatry and the fall of Egypt may seem like isolated events but they were intricately connected.

When analyzing complex problems effective leaders see interrelationships, patterns and implications from the order of their actions rather than just a static picture. Read Nehemiah 2:1-9.

Nehemiah had prayed and fasted over the “Jerusalem situation” since he had heard about the walls lying in rubble and the people living in disgrace at the mercy of every marauding group but Nehemiah faced some complex problems if he were to be part of rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. Nehemiah had to find a way to gain the king’s approval to leave his government job as cupbearer. Nehemiah had to consider where he would get the resources to rebuild the city gates; he had to find a way to be protected from the enemies in Judah that did not want Jerusalem to have walls; and Nehemiah had to figure out how to motivate the discouraged people living in and around Jerusalem.