Brief, Very Very Brief Intro to Systems Thinking
Learning Lunch
Goal of this slide deck
• Intro on Systems Thinking
• Some examples and such
• Resources for diving deeper
Systems thinking is fundamentally different from traditional forms of analysis.
Take these three parts
Traditionally, we might narrow in one part at a time.
If I change Part #1 then that will cause X to happen.
But in Systems Thinking, you look at entire system, and the interactions between them.
If I change Part #1 how does that influence Part #2?
If Part #2 is influenced then how does that influence Part #3?
So on and so forth.
Each part of the system becomes both cause and effect.
How does one actor in the system influence others?
Concrete Example (Reinforcing Process)
As sales goes, so does # of customers
As # of customers goes, so does word-of-
mouth
As word of mouth goes, so does
sales
Concrete Example (Balancing Growth)
As relaxation exercises goes, our stress level
goes in the opposite way
As stress level goes, so does our stress
level gap.
There’s a decision point, our acceptable stress level informs
us about using relaxation exercises.
Concrete Example (Shifting the Burden)
There’s a problem symptom ->
The more people we have on the bench the more likely we are to engage in a
symptomatic solution.
Engaging in symptomatic
solutions lessens our problem
symptom.
Engaging in symptomatic
solutions increases the self-imposed limit we put on ourselves for
working towards fundamental
solutions.
By limiting our availability to work
towards the fundamental solution we decrease our chances of reaching the fundamental solution.
Engaging in a fundamental solution
has a longer delay
As fundamental solutions go, the
problem symptom does the opposite.
are occurrences we encounter daily
are accumulated “memories” of events over time
are ways in which the parts of the system are organized
Structure Influences Behavior
Resources & Tooling
kumu.io
• Web-app for visualization complex information and relationships
• Like github but for data visualizations
• Opensource projects are free!
thesystemsthinker.com
• Site with lots of good content and information around Systems Thinking
The Fifth Discipline
• Great book.
• First half, fantastic.
• Second half, half fantastic.
• Back quarter, quarter fantastic.