Thinking in Systems: A Primer
Last modified on July 18, 2022

Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other , but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other . I call such situations messes . … Managers do not solve problems , they manage messes .

So , what is a system ? A system is a set of things — people , cells , molecules , or whatever — interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time . The system may be buffeted , constricted , triggered , or driven by outside forces . But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself , and that response is seldom simple in the real world .

Modern systems theory , bound up with computers and equations , hides the fact that it traffics in truths known at some level by everyone . It is often possible , therefore , to make a direct translation from systems jargon to traditional wisdom .

Hunger , poverty , environmental degradation , economic instability , unemployment , chronic disease , drug addiction , and war ,

are intrinsically systems problems — undesirable behaviors characteristic of the system structures that produce them . They will yield only as we reclaim our intuition , stop casting blame , see the system as the source of its own problems , and find the courage and wisdom to restructure it .

I don’t think the systems way of seeing is better than the reductionist way of thinking . I think it’s complementary , and therefore revealing . You can see some things through the lens of the human eye , other things through the lens of a microscope , others through the lens of a telescope , and still others through the lens of systems theory . Everything seen through each kind of lens is actually there . Each way of seeing allows our knowledge of the wondrous world in which we live to become a little more complete .

a simple lesson but one that we often ignore : The behavior of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made .

A system * is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way that achieves something . If you look at that definition closely for a minute , you can see that a system must consist of three kinds of things : elements , interconnections , and a function or purpose .

Some people say that an old city neighborhood where people know each other and communicate regularly is a social system , and that a new apartment block full of strangers is not — not until new relationships arise and a system forms .

It’s easier to learn about a system’s elements than about its interconnections .

Information holds systems together and plays a great role in determining how they operate .

If information - based relationships are hard to see , functions or purposes are even harder . A system’s function or purpose is not necessarily spoken , written , or expressed explicitly , except through the operation of the system . The best way to deduce the system’s purpose is to watch for a while to see how the system behaves .

An important function of almost every system is to ensure its own perpetuation .

Keeping sub - purposes and overall system purposes in harmony is an essential function of successful systems .

Changing elements usually has the least effect on the system .

If the interconnections change , the system may be greatly altered .

Changes in function or purpose also can be drastic

A stock is the foundation of any system . Stocks are the elements of the system that you can see , feel , count , or measure at any given time .

Stocks change over time through the actions of a flow . Flows are filling and draining , births and deaths , purchases and sales , growth and decay , deposits and withdrawals , successes and failures .

A stock can be increased by decreasing its outflow rate as well as by increasing its inflow rate .

A stock takes time to change , because flows take time to flow . That’s a vital point , a key to understanding why systems behave as they do . Stocks usually change slowly .

Changes in stocks set the pace of the dynamics of systems .

Stocks allow inflows and outflows to be decoupled and to be independent and temporarily out of balance with each other .

Systems thinkers see the world as a collection of stocks along with the mechanisms for regulating the levels in the stocks by manipulating flows . That means system thinkers see the world as a collection of “ feedback processes . ”