Systems thinking

Systems thinking is the cognitive ability to study and understand systems of many kinds, integrating information from different sources and different types.

In biology, examples of the objects of systems thinking include living systems in which various levels interact (cell, organ, individual, group, organization, community, earth).

In linguistics, systems thinking allows us to analyze linkages and interactions between differnt types of meaning, and different channels of communication.

In psychology, systems consist of inputs, transformations, outputs, feedback loops, goals, stakeholders, and external influences that operate together to make an organization healthy or unhealthy.

Systems thinking has roots in a diverse range of sources from Jan Smuts' holism in the 1920s, to the general systems theory that was advanced by Ludwig von Bertalanffy in the 1940s and cybernetics advanced by Ross Ashby in the 1950s. The field was further developed by Jay Forrester and members of the Society for Organizational Learning at MIT, which culminated in the popular book The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, which defined systems thinking as the capstone for true organizational learning.Derek Cabrera's self-published book Systems Thinking Made Simple claimed that systems thinking itself is the emergent property of complex adaptive system behavior that results from four simple rules of thought.

Systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem solving that attempts to balance holistic thinking and reductionistic thinking. By taking the overall system as well as its parts into account systems thinking is designed to avoid potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. There are many methods and approaches to systems thinking. For example, the Waters Foundation presents systems thinking as a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation; and that systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. Other models characterize systems thinking differently. Recent scholars, however, are focused on the "patterns that connect" this diversity or pluralism of methods and approaches.

...
Wikipedia