Great post. And lots of insights and perspectives on a very important topic: the system behaves differently than the "theoretical" analytical view woule lead us to believe.
But, here's the issue, u don't think we can convince others they need to "see the system". It we can act as if we do.
This is my go to: act as a system thinker, and never assume others will. That is our system, how we all act together, in a team for example.
A wise mentor imparted to me a while ago that in fact, we're all "systems thinkers", just that we're not always consciously aware of it. We think systemically when we plan a trip to the grocery store and respond to feedbacks when our favourite route is blocked, and later if our brand of cereal is out of stock. We work systemically together on projects, personal and professional. There's no "in-club" of practitioners segregated by a velvet rope.
So, what dissuades us from thinking of the interactions of parts and instead about the parts themselves? Decades of codified rules that narrow our focus from seeing the interactions.
What I've found is it's really easy to explain seeing and thinking with a systems view because it feels natural to the user. What's more difficult is letting go of the rigid guardrails that restrict acting in a compatible way...
When we analyze/break apart to find a solution, for example, we are not applying our awareness of systems.
I see this a lot, and in engineering contexts, this may even work well for a while (depending on the system).
Another context when I see this happening is when people look for specific solutions to a problem without understanding how the "whole system" gets measured.
For example, a basketball coach optimizing for winning shots on goal, but not keeping tabs on how many shots are tried during a game.
There's so many pressures for us to think analytically.... It's often even impossible to notice when we are doing it. The old adage: you can't talk to a fish about water... sigh...
Great post. And lots of insights and perspectives on a very important topic: the system behaves differently than the "theoretical" analytical view woule lead us to believe.
But, here's the issue, u don't think we can convince others they need to "see the system". It we can act as if we do.
This is my go to: act as a system thinker, and never assume others will. That is our system, how we all act together, in a team for example.
A wise mentor imparted to me a while ago that in fact, we're all "systems thinkers", just that we're not always consciously aware of it. We think systemically when we plan a trip to the grocery store and respond to feedbacks when our favourite route is blocked, and later if our brand of cereal is out of stock. We work systemically together on projects, personal and professional. There's no "in-club" of practitioners segregated by a velvet rope.
So, what dissuades us from thinking of the interactions of parts and instead about the parts themselves? Decades of codified rules that narrow our focus from seeing the interactions.
What I've found is it's really easy to explain seeing and thinking with a systems view because it feels natural to the user. What's more difficult is letting go of the rigid guardrails that restrict acting in a compatible way...
When we analyze/break apart to find a solution, for example, we are not applying our awareness of systems.
I see this a lot, and in engineering contexts, this may even work well for a while (depending on the system).
Another context when I see this happening is when people look for specific solutions to a problem without understanding how the "whole system" gets measured.
For example, a basketball coach optimizing for winning shots on goal, but not keeping tabs on how many shots are tried during a game.
There's so many pressures for us to think analytically.... It's often even impossible to notice when we are doing it. The old adage: you can't talk to a fish about water... sigh...