System thinking
To understand what system thinking is, you need to turn to the concept of a system. A system is a set of interacting elements that together make up a whole so that this whole is greater than the sum of the elements. Any system has its own functions, properties, structure, laws of interaction, development, and other parameters. In order for system thinking to help us solve problems and make decisions, we need to learn to see the world as the interaction of systems. Highlight systems and switch between them.
Nothing in our world is a separate fragment. The world is a complex system with numerous subsystems and suprasystems. All parts of the system that ensure the required functioning of the system are called subsystems. Everything that is not a subsystem, but interacts with the system, is called a suprasystem. A person, a state, an army, a car, currency, education, social networks, business — all these are systems.
For example, a car is a system. The engine, transmission, wheels, suspension are subsystems, and the driver, road and cargo are suprasystems.
You can separately consider the engine as a system with suprasystems and subsystems. Similarly, you can look at any object and represent it as a system, suprasystems and subsystems. When a person sees system levels and relationships, which significantly accelerates the ability to analyze, identify problems and find resources at different levels of systems, he can see the whole picture and find the optimal points of application of efforts.
When people without system thinking talk about global things, they do not understand why simple decisions that lie on the surface are not made. They don’t see how the system works, and what connections there are in it. Systems are complicated. You can’t just approach such a topic. So that complex books don’t scare you off, you can start diving into system thinking in this order:
1. Watch the YouTube video “Introduction to Systems Thinking” on the channel Actualized.org. This video is in Russian, where it is explained in simple language what a system and system thinking are with real examples. It’s the best explanation of this topic that I’ve seen so far. This will be enough to start noticing systems, suprasystems, subsystems and the connections between them.
2. You can read a more scientific explanation about the laws of systems development in the book “The Art of Systems Thinking” by A. McDermott and D. O’Connor. There are also a lot of clear examples in it, the information is more complicated, but reading will not be difficult. You can also watch a video about it. Many bloggers talk about this book.
3. If the information above arouses interest, then you can study system thinking further. Pay attention to the book “System Thinking” by Anatoly Levenchuk. Read articles on his website, watch speeches or take a free course on Coursera. It is very difficult, but it will definitely update your thinking and outlook. You will be surprised by the presence of new words, sciences and forms of thinking about thinking. Anatoly’s main message is the development of intelligence, so that you can use thinking to realize different roles, master new disciplines and solve problems that you have not met before. I agree with his position, so I highly recommend reading the works of Anatoly Levenchuk.
When I didn’t read books, I didn’t reason with the concept of “systems” although I used systematic thinking. When planning, I always tried to visualize the whole picture, because on an intuitive level I was uncomfortable with fragmentary thinking. I think math, physics and logic games on SEGA helped me. To develop system thinking, train yourself to find systems in the environment, space or work.
Try to determine system levels, system boundaries, and the relationship with other systems. I am sure that a person with a system mindset will never be just working hands. System thinking is like Asterix and Obelix potion for optimization. You already have it, and now you just need only to learn how to use it in order to start getting benefits for yourself as soon as possible.
