Let me start by saying that I am going to keep this explanation very simple. We will be covering this topic in greater depth in later posts and studies. My goal here is to give you a few highlights that will help you understand the model and how I use it in order to better understand the posts you read here.
What does it mean to think in terms of systems? Complex systems thinking is a Mental Model (Taking the Red Pill) that provides a lens to interpret many of the things we observe. It will allow us to look at different aspects of our training, in light of our goals, and to make helpful decisions. It will also assist us in interpreting the feedback we get from our experiments / performance, and make adjustments to create the types of affects we are trying to achieve.
A system is more than the sum of its parts. You can have a random jumble of things that is not a system. For example, scatter a shovel full of gravel in your front yard and you have a bunch of gravel in your front yard. It does not form a system. You could remove or add pieces of gravel, but it would not make a real difference.
A system isn’t just any old collection of things. 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. 1
Elements are the parts of a system. A couple of examples are given in the book I can sketch out here to make this clearer. If we look at a football team as a system, the elements (parts) would be things like the players, the coach, the field, the ball, etc. The interconnections would be rules, strategies, communication, and even the laws of physics that affect the play of the game. The purpose would be to win the game (individual purposes could also be to make money, gain social status / popularity, etc).
As a human being, we could view you as a whole as a system, but even the elements themselves may be further broken down into systems. For example, if you are planning a cycle of nutrition and conditioning training to further your performance goals (addressing your overall performance), you will be interacting with multiple systems. Your digestive system, circulatory system, musculo-skeletal system, endocrine system, respiratory system, etc. These examples are physical, but from a performance standpoint, you will simultaneously be addressing mental aspects with your nutrition and exercise as well. Your ability to control your mental state under stress is affected by the limiting factors of your conditioning and your diet. You can see by this example how you can move the lens of your observation closer in and further out as necessary.
While elements are frequently the easiest things to identify in a system, even more important (though sometimes harder to identify), are the interconnections.
Some interconnections are actually physical…
Many interconnections are flows of information – signals that go to a decision point or action points within a system. 1
For those who have studied performance under stress, you will immediately see the usefulness of this model using the definition above. The mid-brain (amygdala) etc. has priority in state of high emotional arousal / stress, and it draws from relevant experiences for its solutions. This happens faster than conscious processing can occur (more on this later). As we, through intelligent training and practice, create new templates and change the system, relevant information flows to the decision / action points and creates more favorable responses. These interconnections are generally harder to spot than the elements, though if you know to look, you will be able to now begin to find and identify them.
The last part, Purpose or Function, can be harder to identify still…
In the blog article Identify Your Priorities, we saw that there are no “side effects”, merely unintended or unanticipated effects. This type of systems thinking model is useful in observing feedback and identifying effects as more or less desirable. This model will give you more tools for identifying anomalies when you find them (and you can count on surprises), and making adjustments as necessary that will tune the system to be more in line with your intended purpose.
“Intended Purpose” is important. Sometimes the true purpose of a system is not the stated goal. This is because the elements and interactions are not set up to create the intended effect. Have you ever heard saying “garbage in, garbage out” related to computer programming. The idea is that the code you write may be intended to do one thing, but it the code will do what you tell it to regardless of your intention. The more elegant, efficient, and effective the code, the more favorable the outcome with regard to the stated goal. Sometimes you may find that the system doesn’t create the effect you want at all. That is not the time to double down and do the same thing harder. Too often we as human beings go with that solution in order to avoid the mental pain of having to revise our Mental Models (and admit we were …. Dare I say it?… Wrong about something).
No matter what system you are talking about, look at the effects or behavior of the system if you want to identify its purpose. If you are talking about something like a legal system, for example, perhaps someone proposes a law to solve a persistent problem. Let’s stretch our imaginations for a minute and say that everyone (or nearly everyone) agrees that this is a problem and a new law should be passed to make the situation better. The law would be an element of the legal system. When that law went into effect, we could observe the results. Did the situation improve and did we see the desired result when we changed the system? If we did not, perhaps we didn’t understand the interconnections as well as we thought. If the law (or laws) are active with a stated purpose of “solving this problem”, but the problem is the same or worse, the purpose of the system is NOT to solve that problem, whatever the stated goal. There could be many reasons for such a breach between stated goals and actual function of the system. There are as many variations as there are people. Logically, if the condition exists, it could be well meaning ignorance or some kind of malicious intent (not honest about stated goals), among other things. The bottom line is, whatever system you are dealing with, pay attention to the outcomes… the effects… and use the feedback to identify elements or interconnections of the system you can adjust to create the desired results.
This model will also be very helpful when we start talking about strategic thinking in future articles. We will be going into more depth particularly examining Eastern strategic logical models and how to integrate those models with Western models. That is an interesting discussion for another day however…
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Donnella H Meadows (edited by Diana Wright, Sustainability Institute)
Thank you for sharing this insightful article! I found the information really useful and thought-provoking. Your writing style is engaging, and it made the topic much easier to understand. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!