How to start Systems Mapping: Practice for Systemic Problem solvers, Leaders and Organisations (Pt.1)

6 min readNov 23, 2021

Have you ever seen a detective board on the wall? If you like detective stories and films as I do, the answer is probably yes. Sherlock never solved a case without making a map on the wall first. He linked every person involved in the criminal case, every proof and every connection among them so that he could better visualise what he knew and how facts, people and his discoveries were interrelated.

The same can be said for war military elites, generals; such as Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. They would never go to war before mapping their enemies positions on the battlefield, as well as the enemy’s territory and their troop’s positions.

Why? Because that is what great leaders, great problem solvers and detectives do. They only solve cases, make decisions and win battles after trying to understand the system they are dealing with and the relation among elements within the system.

Having that said, system mapping is a tool for making sense of the world. A tool to better understand our positions in a System as well as its structure and behaviour. But, of course, every tool to be good at needs practice. That is what I will do in this conversation, explain in a fast and simple way the first steps to mapping the systems we are interested in.

Multiple Steps process

Of course, to map a complex system, we need to follow a type procedure, in order to turn the session executed, either alone or with a team, more productive and significant. There are at least four-stage, as illustrated below:

In this conversation, we will focus on the first one: Mapping, the first steps required to get started. To do that you can take a pen and a notebook, or find incredible boards for system thinkers, such as Miro Boards (Thank me later). Ready?

Step 1: The Purpose.

First of all, one needs to make sure the objective with which to map a particular system. It is the purpose that will guide the other choices involved in the process of mapping or modelling a system of interest. You can choose with of the purposes below is yours (Fig.1):

Source: Systems innovations :**(Fig.1)**

Step 2: The Choices.

As with every type of map or model, one needs to make choices about what to map, some of the questions we need to do:

What System do I want to map?
Only one system? Or several systems overlapping?
Do I want to map the system in each of its multiple dimensions and levels?
Map the system as closed or as an open system interacting with its environment?

As I mentioned, the answers will depend on the purpose. If your purpose is the second one (Fig.1): To find leverage points to effectively intervene in a system, you will need to make multiple dimensions and multiple scale maps, with more profound relations, assigning moderator and intervening variables.

Step 3: A visual overview of the system: All the elements.

The aim at this early stage is to get a visual overview of the system of interest.
No adding of causal relations or different dimensions yet. Simply get it all out in front of us, different component types, all types of elements within the system. All nodes we and our team can possibly think of, given the amount of knowledge about a particular system.

Step 4: Dimensions and the Environment.

As the purpose is to map systems in order to represent and define wicked problems and systemic issues, we need to accept the system as open. It means the system interacts with the environment and has multiple dimensions. One needs to decide which dimensions are most relevant to the purpose:

Examples:

Economic Factors

To run a hospital, provide water to a city, run a concert or even a local church all involve economics. It means economic is a very important dimension. Thus, influences and considerations of economics and finance are everywhere :

Social Factors

Socio-political factors need to be included. These may include regulation and governance, media digital or not, government structures, institutions, demography.

Technological Factors

All the systems we are interested in, to some degree, are dependent upon a technology infrastructure. Whether we are dealing with education, media, finance or international trade, politics, management of a startup. They all require vast networks of telecommunications, energy supply, transport and physical infrastructure to enable their functioning:

Step 5: Adding Links and relations

One needs to consider that system maps are powerful visualization tools.
It just is used to describe and identify the current state of a given system; understand how system structure creates the observable outcomes. In case of team session interactions: create a shared vision of the system; representing and defining the problem.

That is the moment we start to create the links and decide what is related to what. Adding the Linkages among the elements we put in Step 3. A link simply denotes that two things are connected in some way.

For example, this may be the exchange of information between two organizations, the flow of goods from a manufacturer to two distributors, or money flows from people to people or from institutions, such as banks, other organisations, to the government via taxes, etc.

Here we finish the first most important steps in mapping a system. After that, we enter into more deep waters; Casual loops and feedbacks. These will be the subjects for the next conversations. These steps are enough to get a great introduction in the journey to become unique systemic problem solvers and leaders.

Remember, all systems mapping is a type of modelling that is designed to reveal the underlying interrelationships and structure of a complex system: many parts interacting and connected in an interdependent way.

When thinking in systems we need to have these four basic concepts in mind:

Environment
Boundary
Elements or Nodes
Relations.

Author's Picture. **My first steps in Mapping the Financial Systems.**

Conclusion: Takeaways

System mapping is about gaining an empirical understanding of
what we are dealing with, before envisioning what is creating issues, what
we would like the system to be.

However, you as a leader, a systemic problem solver and a system changer must know that systems maps should not be seen as deliverables or endpoints. Rather they are tools of exploration, stepping stones on our path to understanding the system, its dynamics and structural factors that underly complex issues.

This type of exercise is also important to gain consensus about the problems when working with teams in huge organisations or start-ups, as well as identify opportunities for actions. Bearing this in mind, write down the steps and start Mapping:

Step 1: The Purpose.
Step 2: The Choices.
Step 3: A visual overview of the system: all the elements on the board.
Step 4: Dimensions of the system and the Environment.
Step 5: Adding Links and relations.