Why Use Systems Thinking?
When working in social, economic, environmental systems, we often assume one action has one result that it will happen relatively soon.
But experience has shown us that we are managing tightly interconnected, delayed, complex systems where one action has multiple, often counterintuitive, results. Delays and perverse effects are common.
Our brains just don't capture these system features well.
Complex systems make learning difficult and make ordinary policy design fraught with problems. Often, we don't have time to watch and see if our interventions are going to work well, and then readjust accordingly.
So we need tools plus supporting conversations and processes for learning and designing actions within these complex systems — tools for accelerating our collective learning: systems thinking.
Such tools capture the complexity. And they also need to be easily embedded within practical, on the ground, human scale processes — usually team conversations about what really matters, what people want to create in the world, what assumptions lead them to support their actions, and how to get there. That's why we integrate systems thinking approaches with vision/aspiration/personal mastery training as well as reflective conversation work .
Uses of a System Thinking Project
- Learning within a team
- Developing strategy
- Understanding "perverse" system behavior
- Helping teams communicate insights to others
- Helping advocates engage stakeholders
- Corporate training for executives on how to manage for multiple goals and address sustainability
Forms for a System Thinking Project
- System Dynaimcs model created through an iterative process with stakeholders in the system
- Conceptual model within a policy paper
- "Learning Lab" for group interaction supported by a System Dynamics model
- Model-based simulator on the web
- Board game or other physical game supported by a model-based simulator
Typical Insights
- How actions and interventions and policies all affect outcomes in the short and long term
- What actions or strategies really help, and which are just treating symptoms
- Unanticipated side effects of actions
- What new choices are possible
- Support for goal-setting; discovering effective goals
- Highlighting assumptions that underly actions in the system
- How the system works
Typical Benefits
- Building support for high leverage strategies and letting go of ineffetual strategies
- More realistic understanding of dynamics and trends
- Stitching together research on diverse areas
- Motivation to act
- Hope and optimism that there are possibilities
- Increased teamwork across stakeholder groups — a focus on the system not the individuals
Questions to Consider
What is the change in the world that you are hoping to see as a result of your work?
Who would need to be part of a decision that would bring about the change you want to see?
What would you like to learn?
Where are there doubts or uncertainties or assumptions you'd like to test?