Minnesota Futurists

 

Systems Thinking

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the Way of Systems

theWay is an effectiveness enhancement facility. theWay does not purport to provide answers. theWay provides access to fundamental principles, with supporting information, to develop understanding to support the development of strategies to address situations. Not just any strategies, but strategies which have a very high probability of working when applied. To employ theWay an understanding of Systems and Systems Thinking is essential, as well as how we formulate questions influences the answers we develop.

The overall structure or architecture of theWay is built on relationships between system archetypes. Simply begin at the center and work outward as the descriptions are appropriate to the situation you are considering.

 

 

 

 

 

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Systems thinking is an approach to analysis that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system will act differently when isolated from its environment or other parts of the system. Because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, (the relationship between the parts is what should be under observation) any atomistic analysis, is considered reductionistic. Standing in contrast to Descartes's, and others', reductionism, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner.

 

Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by bringing the linkages and interactions to bear between the elements that comprise the entirety of the system. It depicts all human-activity systems as open systems, that they are affected by the environment in which they exist.

 

Systems thinking attempts to illustrate that, in complex systems, events are separated by distance and time; hence, small catalytic events can cause large changes in a system. Acknowledging that a change in one area of a system can adversely affect another area of the system, it promotes organizational communication at all levels in order to avoid the silo effect.

Both systems thinkers and futurists consider that:

 

  • a "system" is a dynamic and complex whole, interacting as a structured functional unit;
  • information flows between the different elements that compose the system;
  • a system is a community situated within an environment;
  • information flows from and to the surrounding environment via semi-permeable membranes or boundaries
  • systems are often composed of entities seeking equilibrium but can exhibit oscillating, chaotic, or exponential growth or decay behavior.

 

 

What is a system?

A system is any set (group) of interdependent or temporally interacting parts. Parts are generally systems themselves and are composed of other parts, just as systems are generally parts or holons of other systems.

 

Systems thinking techniques may be used to study any kind of system — natural, scientific, human, or conceptual.

The Systems approach rests on two tenets:

  1. "The Whole is more than the sum of the parts" — Aristotle
  2. The development ethic.

 

Examples

Systems thinking often involves considering a "system" in different ways:

Rather than trying to improve the braking system on a car by looking in great detail at the composition of the brake pads (reductionist), the boundary of the braking system may be extended to include not only the components of the car, but the driver, the road and the weather, and considering the interactions between them.
Looking at something as a series of conceptual systems according to multiple viewpoints. A supermarket could be considered as a "profit making system" from the perspective of management, an "employment system" from the perspective of the staff, and a "shopping system" — or perhaps an "entertainment system" — from the perspective of the customers. As a result of such thinking, new insights may be gained into how the supermarket works, why it has problems, or how changes made to one such system may impact on the others.

 

Methods

The application of Systems thinking has been grouped into three categories based on the techniques used to tackle a system:

  • Hard systems — involving simulations, often using computers and the techniques of operations research. Useful for problems that can justifiably be quantified. However it cannot easily take into account unquantifiable variables (opinions, culture, politics, etc), and may treat people as being passive, rather than having complex motivations.
  • Soft systems — For systems that cannot easily be quantified, especially those involving people holding multiple and conflicting frames of reference. Useful for understanding motivations, viewpoints, and interactions and addressing qualitative as well as quantitative dimensions of problem situations. Soft systems are a field that utilizes foundation methodological work developed by Peter Checkland, Brian Wilson and their colleagues at Lancaster University. Morphological analysis is a complementary method for structuring and analysing non-quantifiable problem complexes.
  • Evolutionary systems — Bela H. Banathy developed a methodology applicable to the design of complex social systems. This technique integrates critical systems inquiry with soft systems methodologies. Evolutionary systems, similar to dynamic systems are understood as open, complex systems, but with the capacity to evolve over time. Banathy uniquely integrated the multidisciplinary perspectives of systems research (including chaos, complexity, cybernetics), cultural anthropology, evolutionary theory, and others.
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Applications

Systems thinking is increasingly being used to tackle a wide variety of subjects in fields such as computing, engineering, epidemiology, information science, health, manufacture, management, and the environment.

For example:

 

References

 

See also

 

Bibliography

  • Russell L. Ackoff (1999) Ackoff's Best NY: Wiley
  • Bela H. Banathy (1996) Designing Social Systems in a Changing World NY: Plenum
  • Bela H. Banathy (2000) The Guided Evolution of Society NY: Plenum/Kluwer Academic
  • Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1968) General System theory: Foundations, Development, Applications, George Braziller New York
  • Peter Checkland (1981) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. (Wiley)
  • Peter Checkland, Jim Scholes (1990) Soft Systems Methodology in Action. (Wiley) ISBN 0-471-92768-6
  • Peter Checkland, Jim Sue Holwell (1998) Information, Systems and Information Systems. (Wiley) ISBN 0-471-95820-4
  • C. West Churchman (1968) The Systems Approach, Delacorte Press, New York.
  • John Gall (1978) Systemantics Pocket Books
  • Charles L. Hutchins (1996) Systemic Thinking: Solving Complex Problems CO:PDS ISBN 1-888017-51-1
  • Bradford Keeney(1983) Aesthetics of Change Guilford Press
  • Joseph O'Connor, Ian McDermott (1997) The Art of Systems Thinking: Revolutionary Techniques to Transform Your Business and Your Life HarperCollins.
  • Tom Ritchey (2002) General Morphological Analysis: A General Method for Non-Quantified Modelling
  • Peter M. Senge (1990) The Fifth Discipline - The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (Currency Doubleday).
  • Lars Skyttner (2006) General Systems Theory: Problems, Perspective, Practice (World Scientific Publishing Company) ISBN 9-812-56467-5
  • Gerald M. Weinberg (1975) An Introduction to General Systems Thinking (1975 ed., Wiley-Interscience) (2001 ed. Dorset House).
  • Brian Wilson (Systems) (1984) Systems: Concepts, Methodologies and Applications. (Wiley) ISBN 0-471-92716-3
  • Brian Wilson (Systems) (2001) Soft Systems Methodology: Conceptual Model Building and its Contribution. (Wiley) ISBN 0-471-89489-3

 

External links

 

Software

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