System thinking: when should we use it?

Hi all. Today I want to talk about system thinking.

What is system thinking ?

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. The systems thinking approach contrasts with traditional analysis, which studies systems by breaking them down into their separate elements. According to systems thinking, system behavior results from the effects of reinforcing and balancing processes. Attention to feedback is an essential component of system thinking.

There are new concepts that are appearing in multiple fields, that incorporate this system thinking idea. One of the clearest examples is Circular Economy. In this framework, once a product has been consumed, the economy will take that product an reincorporated into the beginning of the production in order to get new products into the market. In this way, all the economy is making itself more sustainable in the long run.

Important concepts

• Interconnectedness
  The fundamental principle of this shift is that everything is interconnected. So every element on the system will impact any other.
  
• Synthesis
  It is the opposite to analysis. The goal is to connect two or more elements to design or create a desire outcome. Together with interconnectedness, it takes all the system into account.
  
• Emergence
  It is the properties that the system gets via synthesis, but those properties purely come from the interaction of the different parts. Each of the individual elements do not exhibit that property, but it gets into the system via their interactions.
  
• Feedback Loops
  There are two types of feedback loops. Once are reinforcing. They tend to produce more of the same (like algae on a pond) and they exhaust the system in one way or the other. Another type of loops are the balancing loops. In opposition with the reinforcing loops, they make the system to get into an equilibrium state.
  
• Causality
  This is the idea of identifying the source of something that happens on a system.
  
• Systems Mapping
  This is the more important tool in the system thinkers toolbox. It is to map the system into some representation (visual, computer-based, etc) in order to identify the different elements, relations, etc. How this is done it will have a huge impact on the other steps.
  

Reflections

I think systems thinking is a really powerful tool. If we will apply it on our day to day life and ways of working, I can have a lot of impact. This impact can go further than just a project of the profit of a company, but for all society. So it has a potential value of transforming the way we do important activities like in the economy, social security, etc.

I hope you find interesting the concept of system thinking.