apply systems thinking in problem solving and decision making

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Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How?

I f you’re reading The Systems Thinker®, you probably have at least a general sense of the benefits of applying systems thinking in the work-place. But even if you’re intrigued by the possibility of looking at business problems in new ways, you may not know how to go about actually using these principles and tools. The following tips are designed to get you started, whether you’re trying to introduce systems thinking in your company or attempting to implement the tools in an organization that already supports this approach.

What Does Systems Thinking Involve?

Tips for beginners.

Study the archetypes.
Practice frequently, using newspaper articles and the day’s headlines.
Use systems thinking both at work and at home.
Use systems thinking to gain insight into how others may see a system differently.
Accept the limitations of being in-experienced; it may take you a while to become skilled at using the tools. The more practice, the quicker the process!
Recognize that systems thinking is a lifelong practice

It’s important to remember that the term “systems thinking” can mean different things to different people. The discipline of systems thinking is more than just a collection of tools and methods – it’s also an underlying philosophy. Many beginners are attracted to the tools, such as causal loop diagrams and management flight simulators, in hopes that these tools will help them deal with persistent business problems. But systems thinking is also a sensitivity to the circular nature of the world we live in; an awareness of the role of structure in creating the conditions we face; a recognition that there are powerful laws of systems operating that we are unaware of; a realization that there are consequences to our actions that we are oblivious to. Systems thinking is also a diagnostic tool. As in the medical field, effective treatment follows thorough diagnosis. In this sense, systems thinking is a disciplined approach for examining problems more completely and accurately before acting. It allows us to ask better questions before jumping to conclusions. Systems thinking often involves moving from observing events or data, to identifying patterns of behavior overtime, to surfacing the underlying structures that drive those events and patterns. By understanding and changing structures that are not serving us well (including our mental models and perceptions), we can expand the choices available to us and create more satisfying, long-term solutions to chronic problems. In general, a systems thinking perspective requires curiosity, clarity, compassion, choice, and courage. This approach includes the willingness to see a situation more fully, to recognize that we are interrelated, to acknowledge that there are often multiple interventions to a problem, and to champion interventions that may not be popular (see “The Systems Orientation: From Curiosity to Courage,”V5N9).

Why Use Systems Thinking?

Systems thinking expands the range of choices available for solving a problem by broadening our thinking and helping us articulate problems in new and different ways. At the same time, the principles of systems thinking make us aware that there are no perfect solutions; the choices we make will have an impact on other parts of the system. By anticipating the impact of each trade-off, we can minimize its severity or even use it to our own advantage. Systems thinking therefore allows us to make informed choices. Systems thinking is also valuable for telling compelling stories that describe how a system works. For example, the practice of drawing causal loop diagrams forces a team to develop shared pictures, or stories, of a situation. The tools are effective vehicles for identifying, describing, and communicating your understanding of systems, particularly in groups.

When Should We Use Systems Thinking?

Problems that are ideal for a systems thinking intervention have the following characteristics:

The issue is important.
The problem is chronic, not a one-time event.
The problem is familiar and has a known history.
People have unsuccessfully tried to solve the problem before.

Where Should We Start?

When you begin to address an issue, avoid assigning blame (which is a common place for teams to start a discussion!). Instead, focus on items that people seem to be glossing over and try to arouse the group’s curiosity about the problem under discussion. To focus the conversation, ask, “What is it about this problem that we don’t understand?”

In addition, to get the full story out, emphasize the iceberg framework. Have the group describe the problem from all three angles: events, patterns, and structure (see “The Iceberg”). Finally, we often assume that everyone has the same picture of the past or knows the same information. It’s therefore important to get different perspectives in order to make sure that all viewpoints are represented and that solutions are accepted by the people who need to implement them. When investigating a problem, involve people from various departments or functional areas; you may be surprised to learn how different their mental models are from yours.

How Do We Use Systems Thinking Tools?

Causal Loop Diagrams. First, remember that less is better. Start small and simple; add more elements to the story as necessary. Show the story in parts. The number of elements in a loop should be determined by the needs of the story and of the people using the diagram. A simple description might be enough to stimulate dialogue and provide a new way to see a problem. In other situations, you may need more loops to clarify the causal relationships you are surfacing.

THE ICEBERG

The Archetypes. When using the archetypes, or the classic stories in systems thinking, keep it simple and general. If the group wants to learn more about an individual archetype, you can then go into more detail. Don’t try to “sell” the archetypes; people will learn more if they see for themselves the parallels between the archetypes and their own problems. You can, however, try to demystify the archetypes by relating them to common experiences we all share.

How Do We Know That We’ve “Got It”?

Here’s how you can tell you’ve gotten a handle on systems thinking:

You’re asking different kinds of questions than you asked before.
You’re hearing “catchphrases” that raise cautionary flags. For example, you find yourself refocusing the discussion when someone says, “The problem is we need more (sales staff, revenue).”
You’re beginning to detect the archetypes and balancing and reinforcing processes in stories you hear or read.
You’re surfacing mental models (both your own and those of others).
You’re recognizing the leverage points for the classic systems stories.

Once you’ve started to use systems thinking for inquiry and diagnosis, you may want to move on to more complex ways to model systems-accumulator and flow diagrams, management flight simulators, or simulation software. Or you may find that adopting a systems thinking perspective and using causal loop diagrams provide enough insights to help you tackle problems. However you proceed, systems thinking will forever change the way you think about the world and approach issues. Keep in mind the tips we’ve listed here, and you’re on your way!

Michael Goodman is principal at Innovation Associates Organizational Learning

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Systems Thinking: A Holistic Approach to Solving Complex Problems

February 22nd, 2024

Everything has become so interconnected, comprising of multi-pronged challenges. We still try to tackle modern problems with linear thinking approaches that isolate problems and reduce complexity.

But, more often than usual, they fall short of providing a viable solution.

Here, systems thinking offers an alternative perspective to understand how things influence one another within embedded contexts.

This holistic approach proves uniquely capable of untangling thorny issues like sustainability , inequality, or emerging diseases and making decision making effective.

As systems thinking gains wider traction, questions arise about what exactly it entails and why it matters. This article maps out the fundamental principles of systems thinking, dynamic tools used, diverse applications across sectors, and the overall benefits of adopting a systems view, especially in 2024.

The systemic perspective holds special relevance for problem solvers and changemakers currently grappling with twisted challenges and complex systems fundamentally shaped by interdependence.

By revealing hidden connections and patented patterns, systems thinking empowers interventions well-matched to our intricately networked world.

From classrooms to boardrooms, systems tools meet teams in any field to support analysis, communication, planning, or evaluation through an inter-relational lens geared to 22nd-century dynamics shaping our existence.

What is Systems Thinking?

Systems thinking is an approach to understanding how things influence one another within a whole entity. Systems thinking studies connections between key parts to see the collective behaviors that result. Expanding perspectives brings clarity to complex situations.

Systems thinking provides a framework for seeing relationships and patterns to explain how systems function. The key concepts include recognizing the interconnected and interdependent nature of systems and shifting from linear to circular causality.

Reductionist Thinking vs. Systems Thinking

In systems thinking, systems behave as integrated wholes in which elements dynamically impact each other over time.

This contrasts with traditional forms of reductionist thinking that isolate parts to understand systems.

Reductionism breaks systems down into discrete elements, rather than examining the fuzzy system boundaries, complex interactions, and unintended consequences that arise within intricate open systems in the real world.

Systems thinking offers a new perspective focused on the linkages, relationships, emergence, and feedback processes underlying systems functioning. By mapping reinforcing and balancing loops, systems thinking can identify behavior-over-time patterns for a system. This helps explain the whole picture better than reductionism.

Key Concepts of Systems Thinking

Several principles form the foundation of systems thinking. First, systems thinking recognizes the importance of feedback loops in driving system behavior. Feedback loops capture how the output of one part of a system impacts the input to another part, creating causal chains.

Reinforcing feedback loops amplify change exponentially while balancing loops counteract the change.

By mapping these feedback loops, system archetypes emerge – common patterns like limits to growth, escalation, and tragedy of the commons. These system archetypes help diagnose systemic issues, revealing core interrelating dynamics.

System archetypes function as conceptual models for understanding challenges like sustainability, urban decay, and organizational change.

In complex systems, leverage points serve as places to intervene for substantial impact. The goal is to identify where minimal effort shifts the system, through changes to parameters, feedback loops, or paradigm-shifting transformations at the level of goals or mindsets. This contrasts with incidental low-leverage tweaks.

Changing social or ecological systems often involves unintended consequences. However each system has interconnections, time delays, and complex human motivations at play. These can undermine change efforts when not adequately mapped and anticipated.

Systems thinking aims to reveal these unintended ripple effects so they can be weighed when leveraging change.

So, while unintended consequences often limit pure design, systems thinking provides insights to navigate reform more wisely. By elevating awareness of inter-dependencies and causal loops, one can recognize patterns, structures, boundaries, and relationships fundamental to systems insights.

Using Systems Thinking Approaches

Image: Iceberg Model in Systems Thinking

Systems thinkers employ various conceptual tools to understand systems, communicate about them, and guide interventions.

Causality mapping visually depicts variables in a system, their connections, and the direction of causal influence. This illumination of causal links reveals chains of systemic connectivity not otherwise apparent. It supports the analysis of cascading effects and feedback dynamics.

Systems mapping outlines key system components, their attributes and functions, and interrelationships. This structural perspective clarifies the organization of various elements into an integrated whole.

Systems mapping tools can also overlay dynamic processes like information flows and decision pathways to evaluate systemic leverage points.

Mental models strongly shape how people perceive systems and strategic choices within them. Two people can have divergent understandings of the same system. Reflecting critically on how mental models influence thinking is crucial for expanding limited mindsets that bound perspectives on addressing systemic issues.

More detailed system dynamics computer simulations help model system behavior by mapping dynamic complexity. This computational modeling integrates time delays, feedback processes, stocks, and flows to run long-term scenario forecasts for deeper analysis of complex systems like ecosystems, markets, or hospitals.

Adaptive systems thinkers also recognize that models have limits and that systems change over time in nonlinear ways. Rather than attempting precise prediction and control, adaptive approaches use feedback to dynamically adjust interventions according to emergent system patterns.

This flexibility to meet systems in flux is well-suited for catalyzing change in complex contexts.

Applying Systems Thinking

Systems thinking has powerful and diverse applications across sectors:

In business, systems thinking helps managers gain perspective on organizational challenges and identify root causes of problems like low morale or stagnant sales. By mapping reinforcing loops, leaders can find intervention points to shift momentum.

Systems thinking offers analytic tools to rethink structures, decision processes, and feedback channels for organizational change.

Government policymakers similarly utilize systems approaches to craft robust public policies able to balance social, environmental and , outcomes. Methodologies like group model building bring together diverse stakeholders to map out key system relationships as part of the policy design process.

This systems perspective enables policies attuned to ripple effects.

Nonprofit organizations working on social change also apply systems thinking to guide advocacy and programming. For instance, systems tools like behavior over time graphs and connection circles help groups explicitly map the structural causes perpetuating social problems like homelessness at a community level.

This equips nonprofits to pursue systemic intervention points.

More broadly, systems thinking skills help strengthen collaborative problem solving in teams. Facilitating activities that surface mental models, unpack complex dynamics, and scan for unintended consequences builds shared systemic understanding to transform discussion and explore structural solutions.

Overall, systems thinking fosters paradigm shifts towards interconnected, ecological, and holistic thinking in any problem solving context. This empowers more responsible decision-making.

Benefits of Systems Thinking

Adopting a systems thinking perspective carries many advantages:

Systems thinking allows one to see situations more completely rather than getting lost in details. By focusing on interconnections and processes that link system elements, systems thinking provides a “big picture” orientation. This expanded framework reveals areas of critical linkage within the messiness of complex contexts.

A systems view also aids in identifying types of high-leverage interventions amidst complexity. For instance, by mapping system archetypes like limits to growth or tragedy of the commons, one can pinpoint potent areas to reroute damaging feedback loops.

A systems lens highlights openings for targeted changes to cascade through interconnected subsystems.

Systems thinking also anticipates longer-term consequences of potential actions. By tracing causal threads through a system, secondary and tertiary effects are revealed that may otherwise go unseen.

This equips better foresight for the unintended impacts that might ripple across time and space from well-intentioned interventions.

Additionally, systems thinking brings order and coherence to complexity. By surfacing the organic patterning at play, systems tools decode complex dynamics in understandable yet nuanced ways.

Conceptual frameworks like stocks and flows clarify the structural forces driving issues like urban brain drain or suburban sprawl without oversimplifying.

In all of these ways, systems thinking empowers solutions better aligned to real-world complexity while still providing transformational direction. It permeates analysis with key principles of inter-relationship, temporality, perspectival flexibility, and buried connectivity – allowing insight into predicaments otherwise overwhelming.

Systems Thinking in Practice

For those first learning systems thinking, frustrations can arise. Ingrained linear thinking patterns clash with the new multidimensional perspective. Beginners also face cognitive overload wrestling with interconnections between system elements. However, skills gradually build from foundational concepts towards adept systems analysis.

With consistent practice, systems thinkers progress to parsing dynamics of specialized contexts like public health, smart grids, or supply chains. These domain experts learn to rapidly orient to unfamiliar systems through a systemic lens to ask probing questions.

Expanding one’s toolkit with advanced skills like system dynamics modeling and group facilitation extends capabilities to address complex settings.

Some systems thinkers like Donella Meadows significantly advance the field through groundbreaking applications. Meadows demonstrated deep systems wisdom over her career with The Limits to Growth and pioneering system dynamics methodologies.

These mentors develop strong systemic intuition after internalizing inter-relational patterns for decades. Their capacity to shift mental models in themselves and others unlocks societal transformation.

Ultimately, accomplished systems thinkers heed the call to teach others systemic perspectives that spread. Skills-building workshops on causal loop mapping, systems archetypes, communication tactics, and facilitation techniques proliferate systems literacy.

Outreach occurs across diverse communities given universal relevance. Each effort to cultivate systems thinking and broaden capacity for recognizing systemic leverage sustains movement toward positive change.

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