Systemic thinking is a discipline that integrates.....fusing "things" into a coherent body of theory and practice. Systems thinking allows us to comprehend and address the whole, and to examine the interrelationship between the parts allowing us to tackle complex issues. In order to understand this there are one or two elements of systems thinking you need to know. First, one of the key problems we face is that rather simplistic frameworks are applied to what are complex systems. We tend to focus on the parts rather than seeing the whole, and to fail to see issues as a dynamic processes. Second, a better appreciation of "systems" and what they are leads to more appropriate action in looking at the problem.
‘We learn best from our experience, but we never directly experience the consequences of many of our most important decisions’, Peter Senge (1990: 23) argues with regard to organizations.
When faced with a problem, it is the ‘solutions’ that are close by that we focus upon. Classically we look to actions that produce improvements in a relatively short time span. However, when viewed in "systems" terms short-term improvements often involve very significant long-term costs. For example, cutting back on R&D can bring very quick cost savings, but can severely damage the long-term viability of an organisation. Part of the problem is the nature of the feedback we receive. Some of the feedback will be reinforcing (e.g. we are saving money so that's good) to this short term thinking. But in longer term the decline in R&D activity may have severe penalties. An appreciation of systems will lead to recognition of such reinforcing feedback, and also an understanding of the place of balancing feedback. The systems viewpoint is generally oriented toward the long-term view. That’s why delays and feedback are so important. In the short term, you can often ignore them; they’re inconsequential. They only come back to haunt you in the long term.
People often have a problem ‘seeing’ systems, and it takes work to acquire the basic building blocks of systems thinking, and to apply them. On the other hand, failure to understand system dynamics can lead us into ‘cycles of blaming and self-defense: the enemy is always out there, and problems are always caused by someone else’.....sound familiar?
