module 1 introduction to systems thinking
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INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS THINKING
Professor Ockie Bosch
Dr Nam Nguyen
Introduction to the systems concept
The six blind men and an elephant
A partial truth
The moral of the story: having a ‘holistic’ view
“The behaviour of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of the system” (Meadows 2008, p.7)
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
“A system is a set of elements or parts that is coherently organised and interconnected in a pattern or structure that produces a characteristic set of a behaviours, often classified as its ‘function’ or ‘purpose’” (Meadows 2008, p.188)
“Simply defined, a system is a complex whole the functioning of which depends on its parts and the interactions between those parts” (Jackson 2003, p.3)
“A system is more than the sum of its parts – it is the product of their interactions” (Ackoff 1999)
Definitions of Systems
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
A collection is also composed of a number of parts but they are just dumped together and are not interconnected (Sherwood 2002)
A marriage: a collection or a system?
A Degree program?
Source: http://www.yaseenkhan.org
Honey, are we acollection
or a system?
I hope we area system!
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
A System versus a Collection
A system must consist of :
Elements or parts
Interconnectedness & Interactions
Function or purpose
Examples: a business, football team; digestive system; school; faculty, city; corporation; animal; tree; etc.
Basic Properties of a System
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
“Systems thinking is a way of looking at, learning about, and understanding complex situations” (Wilson 2004, p.7)
“Systems thinking is a way of seeing and talking about reality that helps us better understand and work with systems to influence the quality of our lives” (Kim 1999, p.2)
Systems thinking is a ‘new way of thinking’ to understand and manage complex problems (Bosch et al. 2007; Cabrera et al. 2008)
Definitions of Systems Thinking
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Climate and Environmental
changes
Technologicaldevelopments
Global Information Exchange
Increasing Conflicts
Disruptionof the Value Chain
Social & Political
Developments
Differentiation of
Customer Needs
Social Responsibility
Dealing with complexity and coping with increasing dynamics has become the main challenge in project
and program management
Complexity and Dynamics
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Why Systems Thinking?
Politicians, business managers and all members of society have to make important decisions on a daily basis in the complex web in which business, social issues, finance and economics, environment, politics and culture are all highly interconnected
Do we get it right?• Do we make good policy and investment decisions?• Are we aware of the unintended consequences of our decisions?• Are we effective in our cross-sectoral communication and collaboration to deal with the multi-dimensional nature of complex problems?• Do we go for quick fixes because it is easier to treat the symptoms?
OR
Do we urgently need new and innovative ways of thinking and a fresh approach and tools to deal with the problems facing our society?
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Making Decisions in such a Complex Web of Interactions
Food Safety & Security
The Energy Crisis
Environmental Disasters
Climate Change
Carbon Trade
Land Use
Biodiversity
Water Shortage
Business Profitability
Poverty
Human Health
Animal Health
Globalisation
Sustainability
Job Losses
Resource Management
CURRENT ISSUES IN THE MEDIA
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Modified from Maani and Nguyen (2009)
Interconnectedness
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Water
Carbon
Deforestation
Land use
Climate
R1
Environment
?
Economic Growth
Energy use
R2
Energy
Population
Poverty
Population
Food
Agriculture
Biofuel
R3
Biofuel
Globalisation
The Torn Net
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Agric. & Rural
DevelopmentNatural Res &
Environment
Culture, Sport
& TourismPlanning &
InvestmentTraining &
Education
Departments of Hai Phong City
Plans
Collaboration
Sharing
Operating in “Silos”
Integrated Systemic Master Plan for Governance
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Taking stock of a failed projectAndrew Stellman on July 24, 2009
OOPS
?
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Sanitation
Clean water
Living conditions
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Family Planning
Need for Education
Health issues
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
By concentrating on the particular………
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
….bourgeois thought fails to see the totality
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Unintended Consequences
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
“Where the world is dynamic, evolving and interconnected, we tend to make decisions using mental models that are static, narrow, and reductionist.” (Sterman 2000)
Narrow focused and isolated solutions often lead to “policy resistance” and unintended consequences.
To balance and integrate short term and urgent solutions with long term systemic interventions.
To create resilience collaborative, integrated and systemic approaches.
To enhance cross-sectoral engagement, communication and collaboration in dealing with complexity
But, fundamentally and foremost, we need a new way of thinking that allows us to test and challenge age-old assumptions.
A New Way of ThinkingSystemsThinking
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Business (Sterman 2000; Walker et al. 2009)
Health (Cavana et al. 1999; Lee 2009)
Commodity systems (Sawin et al. 2003)
Agricultural production systems (Wilson 2004)
Natural resource management (Allison and Hobbs 2006)
Education (Galbraith 1999; Hung 2008) Decision making (Maani 2002)
Human resource management (Quatro et al. 2007)
Organisational learning and change (Galanakis 2006)
Philosophy, biology, social theory and management (Mingers 2006)
Sustainability and evolutionary learning laboratories for addressing complex issues (Nguyen, Bosch et al. 2011; Nguyen, Bosch et al. 2013a; Bosch, Nguyen et al.2013b)
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Application of Systems Thinking
The capacity to redesign in systems and sustainability terms, will increasingly be what society and employers will require from new people entering the workforce
A “requirement” that has become one of the biggest challenges
for education in this century
Only a deep understanding of the disciplines insufficient - need to
fully understand how disciplines fit into societal and global systems
Living in a Century when humanity will meet ever more limits
Didactic autonomous discipline based courses fail to foster a social
networking culture (interactions between students in different
disciplines)
Need innovative curriculum designs and learning environments that
address academic paradigms as well as industry requirements
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
24
$$$ for mitigating unintended consequences
Symptoms
Events
PATTERNSinteractions between
components
$$$ for root causes of poverty
MENTAL MODELS/MIND MAPS People’s understanding
SYSTEMIC STRUCTURES What does system look like
THE ICEBERG APPROACHSystems Approach$$$ for alleviating poverty
Addressing fundamental problems to achieve sustainable systems
Adapted from Maani and Cavana, 2007
LINEAR THINKING
Improved
Quality of
Life
Enhance
Tourism
More Tourists
More Jobs
More $$$
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
Pollution
Temporary
immigration
Empoloyment
opportunity
Land required
for tourism
Naturalbeauty
Availability of
underground water
Fresh water
consumption
Employment
opportunity for local
people
+
+
Socialissues
Infrastruture
& facility
+
+
Number of
tourists
Attractiveness
of Cat Ba Island
+-
-
+
Wealth of
local people
-
+
Waste+
+
+
+
Illegal forest
exploitaion--
Total
population
+
Agricultural
Production
Livingcost
-
+
+
-
+
-
+
+
Conservation and
agricultural land
-
+
-
B2
B1R1
R3
R2
B3
B4
B5
B6
Studentpopulation
Assess toeducation
+
-
-
-
R5
R4
Investment+
+
+
Resident
population
+
+
Wealth of
Local
People
Number
of
Tourists
Increasing
n Jobs
SYSTEMS THINKING
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
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