Systems Thinking
The development of systems thinking took off with the landmark book General Systems Theory written by Ludwig von Bertalanffy (cite{}). The goal was to develop an all-encompassing systems theory to serve as a basis for interdisciplinary research.
Systems thinking is the ability to understand and intervene in complex systems. A system is comprised of elements, which can also be called parts, entities, persons, and components. The elements are interconnected, i.e., they are related to each other. The crucial aspect of systems thinking is the necessity to understand a system’s behavior as a whole. The behavior cannot be deduced from its constituting elements alone. It is because of the element’s interconnectedness that new properties emerge. This is reflected in the famous quote about systems thinking.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
To illustrate this quote, take for example an aircraft. It is a complex system having many parts such as fuselage, wings, engines, and landing gear. When these parts are assembled in the right way, the desirable property of being able to fly emerges. The parts in itself do not have this emergent property, that is, an engine cannot fly on its own.
Geleerde les: Whole and parts
Samenvatting:
The parts must be understood for understanding the whole, but the parts cannot be understood without the context given by the whole, which is made up by its parts.
Context:
A system as a whole is comprised of parts. Systems thinking is about understanding the interactions between the parts.
- Samenleving bepaalt gedrag van mensen, en omgekeerd mensen maken de samenleving;
- Dialectische, narratieve benadering om beetje bij beetje een diepgaand inzicht te krijgen in wat er speelt in een bepaalde situatie.
Systems thinking is an anti-reductionism approach, which makes it different from more traditional research approaches that study elements in isolation. The reasoning is that if all the elements are understood in isolation, then the whole is understood as well. Systems thinking takes the interconnectedness between elements into account. This has far reaching consequences because due to the interconnectedness the difference between cause and effect becomes obscured. An element may have an effect on another element, which on its turn have an effect on yet another element, and eventually may have an effect on the first element that seems to have started the cause of events in the first place. But due to this circularity, it is impossible to pinpoint the exact element that really caused a particular effect, because there isn’t one.
Systems thinking assumes reflexive domains, meaning that elements are part of the same domain and act and react on each other. First-order cybernetics studied the nature of these feedback loops in great detail. In particular the role of negative feedback was investigated. A well-known example is the thermostat that keeps the temperature in a room between preset limits. If the temperature is too low, the heater is turned on. If it is too high, the heater is turned off. So, the real, measured temperature is fed back to a control unit that calculates the difference, hence the phrase negative feedback, between the desired and measured temperature. The difference in temperature is then used to steer the heater.
Zelf hiervoor een plaatje maken, met alleen de heater (en dus niet de vriezer).
Principle: We are living in a reflexive domain in which cause and effect coincide.
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Referenties
- DSRP Theory - A Primer, Derek Cabrera and Laura Cabrera, 2 maart 2022.
- General Systems Theory, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, George Braziller, Inc., 1 januari 1969.
- Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide, Martin Reynolds and Sue Holwell, 2nd ed., Springer, 1 maart 2020.
- Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide, Martin Reynolds and Sue Holwell, Editors, Springer, The Open University UK, 1 januari 2010.
- Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity; Creative Holism for Managers, Michael C. Jackson, John Wiley And Sons Ltd, 1 maart 2019.
- The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information, Miller, G. A., Psychological Review. 63 (2): 81–97., 1 januari 1956.