Success to the Successful

Also known as “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” this system archetype describes when, among two equally capable groups, more resources are given to one due to luck or bias. This makes that group more likely to succeed, justifying an even larger share of resources. But even when that group fails, the failure is used to justify allocating still more resources because of past success (real or assumed). This is a reinforcing feedback loop that elevates the first group at the expense of the second, which is inefficient because the resources given to the first group are not commensurate with their capabilities, and unsustainable to the extent that the second group refuses to tolerate the unfair distribution of resources.

Example

It isn’t hard to imagine this playing out in an organization. In The Phoenix Project‘s fictional company Parts Unlimited, the Marketing department has the ear of the CEO due to personal history. When Marketing succeeds, they’re given more budget to drive success. When they fail, they’re given more budget to rebound. The IT department on the other hand is frequently under-resourced, even though all the marketing in the world is for nothing if the website can’t process checkouts.

Structurally, systems following this pattern will have two reinforcing feedback loops, only one of which is given priority:

Strategies

• Try to understand why the system is set up to have just one “winner”. Can these rules and the incentives they create be changed? Be prepared for the dominant party to resist any change to the rules and thus their entrenched position.
• Restructure the system so that groups become collaborators rather than competitors, such as by defining success at a higher level than individual group performance.