Systems thinking
Systems thinking involves the use of various techniques to study systems of many kinds. In nature, examples of the objects of systems thinking include ecosystems—in which various elements (such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals) interact. In organizations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that operate together to make an organization healthy or unhealthy.[citation needed]. Systems engineering is a discipline that applies systems thinking to design, build, operate, and maintain complex engineered systems.
Systems thinking has roots in a diverse range of sources from Jan Smuts' holism in the 1920s, to the general systems theory that was advanced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in the 1940s and cybernetics advanced by Ross Ashby in the 1950s. The field was further developed by Jay Forrester and members of the Society for Organizational Learning at MIT, which culminated in the popular book The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, which defined Systems thinking as the capstone for true organizational learning.[2] Systems scientist Derek Cabrera's book Systems Thinking Made Simple claimed that systems thinking itself is the emergent property of complex adaptive system behavior that results from four simple rules of thought.[3]
Systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem solving that attempts to balance holistic thinking and reductionistic thinking. By taking the overall system as well as its parts into account systems thinking is designed to avoid potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. There are many methods and approaches to systems thinking (what systems thinking researchers call a "pluralism"). For example, the Waters Foundation presents that systems thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or practices[4] within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation; and that systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. Whereas, other models characterize systems thinking quite differently. Recent scholars, however, are focused on the "patterns that connect" this pluralism of methods, this search for universal patterns that cut across the pluralism of individual methods of systems thinking is called "universality."
In systems science, it is argued that the only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the parts in relation to the whole.[5] Standing in contrast to Descartes's scientific reductionism, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner. Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the elements that compose the entire system.
Systems science thinking attempts to illustrate how small catalytic events that are separated by distance and time can be the cause of significant changes in complex systems. Acknowledging that an improvement in one area of a system can adversely affect another area of the system, it promotes organizational communication at all levels to avoid the silo effect. Systems thinking techniques may be used to study any kind of system – physical, biological, social, scientific, engineered, human, or conceptual.