Hello there,
System thinking is no fun. We love stories.
In 2018, I wrote about how to filter cognitive biases from events out of pure frustration of storytelling.
Stories are nice, lovely, and inspirational. They are a mnemonic device for facts by bringing the abstract material into a meaningful structure, with characterization, a touché of tension, or conflict topped up with a setting and a point of view.
I’m the type of person who would rather get overwhelmed by the raw data than underwhelmed or whelmed.
And so for a long time, I have been at odds, with the limitations of the storytelling lens.
It simply isn’t good enough for exploring life’s complex systems.
Over time I have come to revise my approach from an “either-or” lens to a “circular” lens.
Stories are a good starting point in systems thinking. Their limited ability to look at a sequence of facts without weaving an explanation into them provides an opportunity to cover a lot of ground and organize information in a manner that allows us some sense-making opportunity.
But that’s it. That’s as good as it gets… Only a good starting point.
The ability to see beyond the parts [mode of delivery] of a system and make sense of it is the focus area of system thinking.
Here we go!!
//
How to Systemize Your Thinking
Systems thinking is looking at the world as a series of interconnected ecosystems orbiting and interacting with each other over time.
Providing a 6 step process for understanding systemic thinking is reductionist thinking itself, but just like the stories, it is a good starting point.
Step 1: Understand everything is interconnected
Several parts make up a system that is part of a larger system – and every system is defined by its function. But a system divided into component parts cannot function.
Its secret sauce (properties) derive from the interactions of its parts, not its parts taken separately.
When we say ‘everything is interconnected’ from a systems thinking perspective, we are defining a fundamental principle of life. There are no longer boundaries, but interfaces.
From this, we can shift the way we see the world, from a linear, structured “mechanical worldview’ to a dynamic, chaotic, interconnected array of relationships and feedback loops.
Step 2: Distinguish Linear from Circular
When we accept the world is interconnected, we realize parts of a system tend to be circular, not linear.
There are no one-way relationships rather an interconnected array of relationships and feedback loops.
Step 3: Appreciate Synthesis
The complexity of the circular nature of systems leads us to break complex systems into smaller isolated parts to understand them. In doing so, we get so warped into the analytical, reductionist, linear, and mechanical thinking that we lose touch of the overall system.
Since these other modes of thinking are quicker, system thinking can be best applied in a more holistic approach to understanding phenomena.
Organized simplicity (i.e. a single machine) lends itself to detailed analysis.
Random, unorganized complexity (i.e. gas molecules in a jar) lends itself to statistics.We have lacked a scientific means for dealing with systems between these two extremes. This is the vast land of **Medium Numbers.
Organized complexity, the region too complex for analysis, and too organized for statistics. This is the region of general systems.**
Synthesis is about understanding the whole and the parts at the same time, along with the relationships and the connections that make up the dynamics of the whole.
Step 4: Witness the Emergence
With a synthetic point of view, you begin to notice properties and causal relationships in systems that do not exist in their components. This phenomenon that transcends the sum of its parts is called “emergence”.
The emergence of organic complexity is mind-blowing and is the cornerstone of system thinking.
- Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, but neither of these two component parts has the quality of wetness. Wetness emerges only when the two parts interact as a whole.
- There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it will be a butterfly — R. Buckminster Fuller.
Step 5: Find the Feedback Loops
Within the fractals, there are constant feedback loops and flows only recognizable through pattern recognition. Pattern recognition enables us to understand the system type and dynamics.
Further enabling us to categorize patterns that govern our actions.
A feedback loop is either reinforcing or balancing meaning with each iteration there is an increase or decrease in magnitude – perpetually and systematically.
- A balancing loop attempts to move some current state to the desired state through some action. Like a thermostat that regulates temperature in a house.
- A reinforcing loop compound changes in one direction which influences more of the same action resulting in growth or decline. Like in an employee-supervisor relationship, positive reinforcement can lead to good employee performance and vice versa.
Step 6: Map the Systems
Mapping helps us study the interactions of systems, and systems with other systems.
//
Best Stuff I Read
1. Plato’s Theory of Education
Plato sees education as the only true way to the permanent stability of the state. If the character of the people is sound, laws are unnecessary; if unsound, laws are useless. With this conviction, Plato starts to emphasize the importance of education in his ideal state.
He clearly saw that education was more than the acquiring of basic facts and ideas in one’s childhood and adolescence, and was the first to propose an elaborate system of adult training and education.
In his Book VII of the Republic Plato sets forth the object of education, which is to turn the eye towards the light which the soul already possesses. (2480 words)
2. King Pine
The pineapple’s “exotic appearance” gave it a mythical quality, which was “enhanced by its golden crown, viewed as the symbolic manifestation of the divine right of king”.
The apple was associated with the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, while pomegranate seeds kept the Greek goddess Persephone in the underworld for half the year.
As someone who can’t stand pineapples, it’s interesting to note that people in the 1770s used the phrase “a pineapple of the finest flavour” to refer to anything that was the best of the best. I guess back then the best wasn’t best enough. (1789 words)
//
What I’m Watching
A hilarious sitcom that I would liken to a grown-up version of Friends. A classic and a life-cracking saviour.
Some of my favourite one-liners:
- That cake. Best cake I ever had. Seriously, my stomach was like, ‘Hey bro, I don’t know what you’re eating cause I don’t have any eyes but it’s basically awesome, so keep sending it down Gullet Alley. — Marshall Eriksen.
- We struggle so hard to hold on to these things that we know are gonna disappear eventually. And that’s really noble. — Lily Aldrin.
- You can’t design your life like a building. It doesn’t work that way. You just have to live it, and it will design itself. Listen to what the world is telling you to do and take the leap. — Lily Aldrin.
//
Feel free to shoot me an email anytime with comments, critiques, and open-ended questions.
Till next Saturday, take care.
Happy weekend ?
Solomon Muigai.