System Thinking
A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules and form a unified whole.
A system that is surrounded and influenced by its environment is described by its boundaries, its structure and its purpose and expressed in the way it functions. Systems are the subject of systems theory.
Examples of such systems are
- Drivers traveling on the A8
- A beehive
- The spectators who want to go to a football game in a stadium
- A software team
Some basic properties of systems can be named:
- Systems have a purpose. The beehive ensures the survival of the bee swarm.
- Systems have a function or form of interaction. The function of the software team is to work together on a software system.
- Systems only function as a whole. The structure of the system is important. A beehive without the element of “worker bees” does not work. If you cut a mouse in half, you don’t get two smaller mice. On the other hand, if a wrench is lost, I still have a collection of tools.
- Systems want to remain stable. They achieve this through feedback loops that build on the way the system works.
- Systems, especially biological and social systems, are emergent, i.e. they continue to develop, they can also develop their purpose further. This will not happen to me with my car as a technical system – these are more limited.
Without these conditions, it is not a system, but an accidental collection of objects or a collection.
System thinking as described here is not the same as the work of, for example, systemic coaches.
The former focuses on describing relationships and feedback cycles.
The latter comes from the description of sociological and biological systems and works with even more general concepts.
Recommended Resources
- Introduction to System Thinking A very precise and compact introduction. After that, everything is actually said.
- The Fifth Discipline The classic for system thinking in organizations. In addition to a consistent systemic picture of organizations, it describes central patterns of relationships and feedback loops.
- Autopoiesis (de) An introduction to the key concept of the world of Luhmann, Maturana and Varela (in German)
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