INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS

THINKING

Professor Ockie Bosch

Dr Nam Nguyen
 Introduction to the systems concept

 The six blind men and an

elephant
 A partial truth
 The moral of the story:
having a ‘holistic’ view
 “The behaviour of a
system cannot be known
just by knowing the
elements of the system”
(Meadows 2008, p.7)

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

 Definitions of Systems

 “A system is a set of elements or parts that is

coherently organised and interconnected in a pattern
or structure that produces a characteristic set of a
behaviours, often classified as its ‘function’ or
‘purpose’” (Meadows 2008, p.188)
 “Simply defined, a system is a complex whole the
functioning of which depends on its parts and the
interactions between those parts” (Jackson 2003, p.3)
 “A system is more than the sum of its parts – it is the
product of their interactions” (Ackoff 1999)

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

 A System versus a Collection

 A collection is also
composed of a number
of parts but they are
just dumped together
and are not
interconnected I hope we are
a system!
(Sherwood 2002)
 A marriage: a collection
or a system? Honey, are we a
collection
 A Degree program? or a system?

Source: http://www.yaseenkhan.org

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

Basic Properties of a System

 A system must consist of :

 Elements or parts
 Interconnectedness & Interactions
 Function or purpose
 Examples: a business, football team;
digestive system; school; faculty, city;
corporation; animal; tree; etc.

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

Definitions of Systems Thinking

 “Systems thinking is a way of looking at, learning

about, and understanding complex situations”
(Wilson 2004, p.7)
 “Systems thinking is a way of seeing and talking
about reality that helps us better understand and
work with systems to influence the quality of our
lives” (Kim 1999, p.2)
 Systems thinking is a ‘new way of thinking’ to
understand and manage complex problems (Bosch
et al. 2007; Cabrera et al. 2008)

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

 Why Systems Thinking?
Increasing
Technological Conflicts
Global Information
developments
Exchange

Climate and Complexity Social & Political

Environmental Developments
changes and Dynamics

Social Differentiation of
Responsibility Disruption Customer Needs
of the Value Chain

Dealing with complexity and coping with increasing

dynamics has become the main challenge in project
and program management
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 Making Decisions in such a
Complex Web of Interactions
Politicians, business managers and all members of society have to make
important decisions on a daily basis in the complex web in which
business, social issues, finance and economics, environment, politics and
culture are all highly interconnected

Do we get it right?
• Do we make good policy and investment decisions?
• Are we aware of the unintended consequences of our decisions?
• Are we effective in our cross-sectoral communication and
collaboration to deal with the multi-dimensional nature of complex
problems?
• Do we go for quick fixes because it is easier to treat the
symptoms?
OR
Do we urgently need new and innovative ways of thinking and a fresh
approach and tools to deal with the problems facing our society?
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 CURRENT ISSUES IN THE MEDIA

 Food Safety & Security  Business Profitability

 The Energy Crisis  Poverty
 Environmental  Human Health
Disasters  Animal Health
 Climate Change  Globalisation
 Carbon Trade  Sustainability
 Land Use  Job Losses
 Biodiversity  Resource Management
 Water Shortage

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

 Interconnectedness
Modified from Maani
and Nguyen (2009)
Food

Agriculture Population
Land use
?
Water Population
R1
Poverty
Deforestation Economic Growth
Environment

R2
Biofuel Climate
Energy
Carbon
R3 Globalisation
Energy use
Biofuel

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

The Torn Net

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

 Operating in “Silos”
Collaboration
Sharing

Plans
Integrated Systemic Master Plan for Governance

Agric. & Rural Natural Res & Culture, Sport

Development Planning &
Environment & Tourism Training &
Investment
Education

Departments of Hai Phong City

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 OOPS
?

Taking stock of a failed project

Andrew Stellman on July 24, 2009
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 Clean water

Sanitation Living conditions

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 Family
Planning

 Need for
Education

 Health issues

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

By concentrating on the
particular……… © Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
….bourgeois
thought fails to see
the totality

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

Unintended Consequences
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 Systems
Thinking A New Way of Thinking
 “Where the world is dynamic, evolving and interconnected,
we tend to make decisions using mental models that are
static, narrow, and reductionist.” (Sterman 2000)
 Narrow focused and isolated solutions often lead to “policy
resistance” and unintended consequences.
 To balance and integrate short term and urgent solutions
with long term systemic interventions.
 To create resilience collaborative, integrated and systemic
approaches.
 To enhance cross-sectoral engagement, communication
and collaboration in dealing with complexity
 But, fundamentally and foremost, we need a new way of
thinking that allows us to test and challenge age-old
assumptions.

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

Application of Systems Thinking
 Business (Sterman 2000; Walker et al. 2009)
 Health (Cavana et al. 1999; Lee 2009)
 Commodity systems (Sawin et al. 2003)
 Agricultural production systems (Wilson 2004)
 Natural resource management (Allison and Hobbs 2006)
 Education (Galbraith 1999; Hung 2008)
 Decision making (Maani 2002)
 Human resource management (Quatro et al. 2007)
 Organisational learning and change (Galanakis 2006)
 Philosophy, biology, social theory and management
(Mingers 2006)
 Sustainability and evolutionary learning laboratories for
addressing complex issues (Nguyen, Bosch et al. 2011; Nguyen, Bosch
et al. 2013a; Bosch, Nguyen et al.2013b)

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

 The capacity to redesign in systems and
sustainability terms, will increasingly be
what society and employers will require
from new people entering the workforce
 A “requirement” that has become one of the biggest challenges
for education in this century
 Only a deep understanding of the disciplines insufficient - need to
fully understand how disciplines fit into societal and global systems
 Living in a Century when humanity will meet ever more limits
 Didactic autonomous discipline based courses fail to foster a social
networking culture (interactions between students in different
disciplines)
 Need innovative curriculum designs and learning environments that
address academic paradigms as well as industry requirements

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen

© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
 THE ICEBERG
Systems APPROACH
Approach
$$$ for alleviating Addressing fundamental
poverty problems to achieve
Symptoms sustainable systems
Events
PATTERNS
interactions between
components
$$$ for
$$$ for root mitigating
causes of SYSTEMIC STRUCTURES unintended
poverty What does system look like consequences

MENTAL MODELS/MIND MAPS

People’s understanding

24
Adapted from Maani and Cavana, 2007
LINEAR THINKING
Improved
Quality of
Life

More $$$

More Jobs

More Tourists

Enhance
Tourism
© Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen
SYSTEMS THINKING
+
+ Investment
Infrastruture Number
B2 of of
& facility Number
+ Tourists
tourists
+ Waste +
+
+ R1 B1
Land required + Resident
Empoloyment for tourism Pollution population
- opportunity
Wealth of
R3
Wealth
Localof B6
People
local people - + +
+ Increasing + - B3 +
Employment
n Jobs Conservation and + Social Total
- - Attractiveness
opportunity for local agricultural land issues population
people of Cat Ba Island - +
R2 + + +
+
Natural
Illegal forest beauty
- exploitaion
R4 + - B4
+
Living Assess to + Fresh water
education Temporary consumption
cost
- immigration
- Student
- population
R5 + B5
-
Agricultural Availability of -
Production underground water
+ © Professor Ockie Bosch and Dr Nam Nguyen