Systems Thinking

Roles: feedback-loop, emergence, interconnection, leverage-point, equilibrium, boundary, stock, flow, delay, nonlinearity

The discipline of understanding wholes through the relationships among their parts. As a source domain, systems thinking supplies a vocabulary of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing), stocks and flows, delays, emergence, and leverage points. It originated in cybernetics (Wiener), general systems theory (von Bertalanffy), and system dynamics (Forrester), and entered business strategy through Senge’s “The Fifth Discipline.” When we say a problem is “systemic,” that an intervention hit a “leverage point,” or that a policy created “unintended consequences,” we are drawing on this frame. Its power lies in making interdependencies visible; its danger lies in treating every problem as a system problem, which can paralyze action with complexity.

Applied To This Frame (10)