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stevegrossi

systems thinking

Tended 2 years ago (5 times) Planted 4 years ago Mentioned 29 times

Contents

Systems thinking (or “systems theory”) is a way of understanding phenomena by looking at the systems they’re a part of. For example, a non-systems-thinking approach to public health might look only at biology to understand obesity, and identify the cause within individuals consuming too many calories and getting too little exercise. A solution resulting from that approach—which might encourage healthier eating or more exercise—is likely to fail because it doesn’t account for the broader systems and factors at play (all 108 of them!). Perhaps some individuals don’t have access to healthy food due to food deserts, or could bike to work if only there were bike lanes. Like many human phenomena, obesity is at the nexus of physiological, psychological, social, environmental, and economic systems. If we want to change some state of the world, we have to understand the systems that gave rise to and continue to maintain it.

Because the world comprises systems embedded within systems embedded within systems and so on, it’s always possible to “zoom out” and examine any phenomenon or system within a wider context.

Feedback Loops

feedback are mechanisms by which the present state of a system influences the future state of the system.

Comparison with Reductivism

Systems thinking is holistic in that it seeks to understand the behavior of parts by looking at the whole. The opposite approach is called reductivism, which seeks to understand systems by examining the behavior of their parts. Both paradigms can be useful, but reductivism—despite being the dominant paradigm in the sciences for hundreds of years—is fundamentally incomplete. Systems are more than the sum of their parts, as the discovery of emergent behavior has shown.

In Practice

  • As noted in Thinking in Systems, the behavior of a system can often be modeled as stocks and flows.

Resources

Mentions

  • Poverty

    …in absolute terms. ## For individuals, being poor is expensive In [[systems thinking]], this is an example of a self-reinforcing negative feedback…

  • systems ethics

    …name I've given to the intersection of [[ethics]] and [[systems thinking]]. Some fundamental questions that arise from this intersection are: - How…

  • Lean Logic

    …https://leanlogic.online/guide-lean-logic/ The book takes a [[systems thinking]] approach to navigating [[energy descent]] and the collapse of the…

  • about

    …the things I'm interested in, mainly [[programming]], [[philosophy]], and [[systems thinking|systems thinking]], especially related to [[systems ethics|how to behave…

  • systems

    …in a way that **achieves** something. This definition comes from [[systems thinking|Systems theorist]] Donella Meadows' definition in _Thinking In Systems_. ## Elements…

  • internal family systems therapy

    …parts" of the mind. Where [[family systems therapy]] is a [[systems thinking]] approach to resolving conflict within families, IFS takes a similar…

  • dancing with systems

    …essay](https://donellameadows.org/archives/dancing-with-systems/) by the [[systems thinking|systems thinker]] Donella Meadows. Meadows argues that we cannot control…

  • Taoism

    …the flow of the universe, a unifying oneness that in [[systems thinking|systems thinking]] might be considered the system of all systems…

  • permaculture

    …sustaining ecosystems modeled after naturally-occurring ones. It's a [[systems thinking]] approach to agriculture. While approaches to permaculture date back millennia…

  • burnout

    …Individual solutions to systemic problems frequently cause burnout From a [[systems thinking]] perspective, an extremely common cause of burnout I've seen…

  • Parenting

    …ethics]], in order to understand our responsibilities to each other - [[systems thinking]], in order to understand and effectively change the world for…

  • deliberate practice

    …and over until you get it, deliberate practice is a [[systems thinking|systematic approach]] to practice that leads to the quickest and…

  • management by objectives

    …diagnoses the problems with NPM/MBO and proposes an alternative, [[systems thinking]] approach to public services, in which - the purpose of the…

  • command and control

    …element of the system tells other elements what to do. [[systems thinking|Systems thinker]] John Gall in his talk ["how to use…

  • Zettelkasten

    …The method was used by the prolific German sociologist and [[systems thinking|systems theorist]] Niklas Luhmann, and is the inspiration for [[note…

  • systems traps

    …Systems traps are a [[pattern language]] in [[systems thinking]] which describe tendencies of systems to fall into certain pathological…

  • feedback loop

    …of a system return as inputs to the system itself. [[systems thinking]] describes two kinds of feedback loops: - **Reinforcing (or "positive") feedback…

  • category theory

    …This focus on relationships over elements echoes the insights of [[systems thinking]], that the relationships between elements in a system are equally…

  • punishment doesn’t work

    …a chocolate." Though I would add a third, from a [[systems thinking]] perspective, which is to understand the conditions and systems which…

  • the work that reconnects

    …inspired by the teachings of [[Buddhism|buddhist]], [[ecology|ecologist]], and [[systems thinking|systems thinker]] Joanna Macy. > The Spiral begins by coming from…

  • gaslighting

    …the victim, perpetuating the problem. I see a relationship with [[systems thinking|systems thinking]]: for example the effects of [[systemic racism]] are…

  • The only way out is through

    …she calls a "foreign element") leads first to **resistance**. In [[systems thinking]] terms, the system's equilibrium is destabilized and its balancing…