An Introduction to Systems Thinking
By Justin Wayne
Carter
The
dark sky gives way to a red streak across the horizon.
The light stretches across the field as the birds begin to sing.
Flowers in the garden begin to lift up to embrace the light from the
sun. A hummingbird leaves its nest
to collect the pollen from the blooming flowers.
At first glance, each event is different from the other with little
relation. A closer look shows that
each event is directly influenced by the other.
The system of the rising sun only becomes evident when looked at as a
whole. By looking at each part
individually, you do not see the larger system at work.
Three pillars of study have greatly influenced research on
organizational behavior. Soft
sciences have provided important information about human behavior. Hard
sciences have provided theoretical and experimental mythologies, and economics
has served as the definitive predictor of organizational behavior.
System theory was proposed in the 1940's by the biologist Ludwig
von Bertalanffy (1976). Bertalanffy
was reacting against reductionism and attempting to revive the unity of
science. He emphasized that real systems are open to, and interact with, their
environments and that they can acquire qualitatively new properties through
emergence, resulting in continual evolution.
Peter Senge (1990) shined light onto the importance of systems in the
business world with his pyramid of systems thinking that includes practices,
principles, and essences.
An important part of a systems approach involves seeking, identifying,
and appreciating the roles, timing, and importance of balancing forces (Ackoff,
1974). As a rule, a systems
approach calls for understanding and focusing on balancing forces and finding
methods to weaken them. Handy
(1994) extends this analysis by depicting the life cycles of public and
private sector organizations and programs using the Sigmoid rotated ninety
degree curve. It depicts the
following stages of a standard organization or program cycle: initiation,
growth reinforced and balanced maturity, and then decline reinforced or
acceleration. For Handy, the
systems approach is to initiate change during the growth stage just as
balancing forces begin to impact on the system.
All
systems tend to be characterized by reinforcing and balancing processes (Senge,
1994). In many systems both growth
and contraction accelerate. This is true of systems as a whole and of parts.
Forces and growths of contraction seem, at times, to feed upon
themselves (Senge, 1992). Examples
are found in business cycles, compounding of interest, house and land market
price movements, stock market movements, and organizational and individual
success or failure.
Systems thinking involves seeing not just
single elements or parts of a process but the whole of the elements and the
interrelationships among elements. A
systems approach considers direct and indirect effects of change in any
element within a system or external to a system that has the potential to
affect any element or process within the system (Bertalanffy,
1976). According to Senge (1994), systems
thinking requires the user to see four simultaneously operating levels
within a system. These levels
include events, patterns, systems, and mental models.
Events are directly observable actions and behaviors.
Patterns emerge as actions and behaviors are repeated over time.
Systemic structures show the relationship between the patterns.
Mental models are the deep seated beliefs and values that hold the
systemic structures in place. Perhaps
the most challenging of all the disciplines outlined by Peter Senge, systems
thinking, is worth the effort to understand.
Because language is linear and sequential, the tendency is to think
simplistically. Systems
thinking emphasizes circles and not lines. This helps emphasize the
systematic patterns at work, and breaks away from the “A”
equals “B” philosophy of the past. Systems
thinking is useful because among other things, it can be diagramed into
structural archetypes.
System archetypes (pronounced ar*che*types) describe common patterns of behavior in organizations. According to Senge (1990) archetypes are nature’s templates–structure and patterns that control events in our personal and work lives. Leaders have the ability to use these archetypes as highly effective tools for gaining insight into patterns of behavior (Ackoff, 1974). In order for leaders to be able to develop a learning organization, they must have a fundamental understanding of behavior. Diagnostically, archetypes help leaders recognize patterns of behavior that are already present in their organization, providing a way of predicting the future behavior of the organization (Senge, 1990). These archetypes are designed as a way to graph the system in order to view the pattern effectively.
The most powerful ideas in history go back to system archetypes. Although the majority of focus on archetypes is based on religion, the central concepts of science, philosophy and ethics are no exception to this rule (Jung, 1968). Physicist Wolfgang Pauli believed that the psychologist and the physicist are on the same quest and that archetypes are fundamental to understanding the laws of nature (Stevens, 1982).
By understanding how systems thinking opens up the mind to the big
picture and how archetypes graph out the patterns of the system, a better
understanding of systems as a whole should be present.
Systems are present in everything.
From organizational behavior to a sunrise, systems explain all events
and all behaviors. Systems are
even parts of larger systems. System
archetypes represent the behavior of the larger system that’s in place.
Each event creates a system that affects a larger system that affects
an even larger system that we call life.
For an excellent concise introduction to systems
thinking and system archetypes, read Introduction
to Systems Thinking by Daniel
H. Kim, Pegasus Communications,
References
Ackoff, R.L. (1974), Redesigning the Future: A Systems Approach to Societal Problems.
Bertalanffy,
L. (1976), General System Theory.
Senge,
P. (1990), The
Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning
Organization.
Senge,
P. (1994), The
Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.
Senge,
P. (1992). Systems Thinking: A language for learning and acting.
Stevens,
A. (1982), Archetype: A Natural History
of the Self, Routledge,
Van
Dujen, J.J. (1983), The
Long Wane in Economic Life.
About the Author
Justin
Carter has a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a major in
Human 
Resource
Management
from the University of North Alabama. He is currently pursuing a
Master of Arts degree in Leadership from Bellevue University. He is an
active member of the Society
for Human Resource Managers. Justin is employed as Training and
Documentation Specialist at FPMI Solutions (Federal Personnel
Management Institute) (www.fpmi.com). FPMI Solutions works through the
Transportation Security Administration as part of the Homeland Security Project.
Justin joined the student mentoring program of weLeadInLearning (http://www.weleadinlearning.org/mentoringservice.htm) in September 2003. This interview article is an outcome of his participation in the mentoring program.