Connectedness — Part 2: Understanding Systems

Relationship between structure and behavior

In the book Thinking In Systems, Donella H. Meadows uses the slinky as an excellent metaphor to demonstrate the basis of systems theory. She explains how an action by the hand leads to a change in the ‘behavior that is latent within the structure of the spring’. And it is this relationship between structure and behavior that makes the slinky bounce up and down when suspended with one hand. From the perspective of our study we must ask, can connectedness be defined as the relationship between the structure and behavior? If yes, it is fair to say that to understand how a system works we first need to first understand its connectedness?

To understand connectedness we not only have to explore the what elements form the system but also study how these elements are connected and why over a stipulated period of time.

In Donella Meadow’s words, to understand a system one must study its elements, interconnections and function or purpose. She elaborates on how stocks (I believe these are elements with changing values) change over time based on actions of flows (interconnections). And to understand the behavior of complex systems, one must understand the behavior of stock and flows over time. However, for the purposes of our study let’s keep it simple and refer to the following four keys aspects needed to explore connectedness and understand the need for systems level thinking from a design point of view.

Waking up in the morning

The primary purpose of this blog is not only to understand connectedness but also to learn how changes in connectedness can effect a system or create new ones. For instance, let’s analyze that act of ‘waking up in the morning’.

In the pictorial above, we can see how an action by the alarm clock influences the person to wake up. However it’s not always one action but multiple actions that can lead to a change in behavior. One or a combination of the following actions could result in the behavior of waking up:

• Alarm going off
• Sleep pattern
• Bad dream
• Light through the window
• Malfunction of heating or cooling system
• Sudden need to go to the restroom (physical need)
• Rise or drop in body temperature (fever)
• External noise (traffic or people chattering)

For the sake of argument, even if we assume that the ringing of alarm clock is the only action (or reason) that influences the person to wake up, we must remember that setting the alarm is also an action that has led to the behavior of the alarm to ring. The point being, a system can live inside of another system or multiple systems can be connected to form a completely new system. In fact that is the case most of the times.

Intro to third blogpost

The future of transportation and the automotive industry is speculated to go though revolutionary changes in the next 10 years. Lead automotive companies like Mercedes-Benz, The Volkswagen Group, BMW, Ford Motor Company and many more have promised to deliver street legal level-4 autonomous vehicles by 2021. For the next few blogpost we will look at the automotive industry and talk about connectedness and systems thinking in relation to autonomous cars.

I am an HCI graduate from Indiana University. This blog series is part of an independent study to understanding systems level thinking and how designers can leverage on this approach to build a well connected future. I would like to thank Prof. Marty Siegel and my fellow classmates for their inputs and critique throughout the study.