Systems Thinking is a lot of things to a lot of people. We view it as an updated OS to interact with the world.
Systems Thinking is a lot of things to a lot of people. At the core, some characteristics everyone agrees upon is that it entails a study of complexity, by looking at interrelationships between different elements of a system, recognising emergence and unearthing mental models within particular systems and sub-systems. A great way of understanding the concept is by seeing it as the opposite of what it’s not – reductionism or linearity which breaks down systems to understand cause and effect in a linear sequence. Systems Thinking is a holistic approach, and calls attention to the old adage – “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.
““You think that because you understand “one” that you must therefore understand “two” because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand “and.”
- Donella Meadows
We see an increased recognition of the systems nature of the world in many fields today, especially through increased awareness of climate change, the complex interplay between democracy and media, issues around privacy and surveillance, and many more. These problems are hard to break down to a root cause. They are non-linear, dynamic and emergent. Solutions to these issues ask for whole systems to change, and such change is only enabled when our ways of thinking and solving problems evolve to embrace complexity and its dynamic nature.
How we view Systems Thinking
There are some key features of Systems Thinking (ST), that are useful to call out.
Systems Thinking as a mindset
A Systems way of thinking helps you in cultivating a way of thinking about how the world works, and creating a deep understanding of the actors, incentives, interrelationships and time horizons to comprehend dynamics. One can use this mindset to recognise issues and enable outcomes that one wishes to see in the world. It shifts you away from a linear way of thinking, or from finding ‘miracle solutions’ or ‘root causes’, towards seeing systems and feedbacks that hold problems in place.
Systems Thinking as a language
A powerful attribute of ST is that it involves a unique vocabulary for describing systemic behavior, providing a common language and a theoretical grounding for cross-disciplinary conversations.
Systems Thinking as a set of tools
The ST toolkit is rich and diverse, and enables you to build a collective understanding of complex phenomena. Some popular tools in this toolkit are the Iceberg model, the actors map, systems maps, system dynamics models, etc. It is encouraged to engage in systems exercises with a diverse group of people that enable you to challenge assumptions and see the system from different vantage points.
Due to the breadth of what the concept emcompasses, some misconceptions about systems thinking also persist. Familiarity with System Dynamics, a subset of Systems Thinking, leads people to incorrectly assume that ST is about mathematical modeling to build complex equational models of reality. While this is true of System Dynamics, it’s not an absolute picture of Systems Thinking. Another misconception is around Systems Thinking being about ladders of inference, actors mapping, etc. – which are great tools to enhance one’s understanding of systems, but it’s important to keep in mind that they are that only – a tool.
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