A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town,
but none of them were aware of its shape or form. So, they tried to find it, and when they found
it started touching it to feel how it looks like. The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk,
said, "This being is like a thick snake." For another one whose hand reached its ear,
it seemed like a kind of fan. Another person, who touched its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar
like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a wall."
Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk,
stating the elephant is like a spear. This ancient Sufi story is a great way to introduce
someone to the core idea of systems thinking. When we mistake the parts for the whole,
we lose perspective and miss the context in which seemingly isolated events occur.
Especially when it comes to problem-solving and creative thinking, what we usually fail to grasp
is that the problem we face is part of a system of problems and that also the problem itself
can be regarded as a system that can be broken down into smaller problems.
We are raised in an event-oriented thinking world. We see the world as a complex succession of
events rather than as a system as a whole. Event oriented thinking assumes that each
event we experience has a cause and that changing the cause will correspondingly change the event.
However, that’s somehow the antithesis of how the world functions.
Famous systems thinker Donella Meadows writes in her book, “Thinking in Systems: A Primer”:
“Let's face it, the universe is messy. It is nonlinear, turbulent, and chaotic. It is dynamic.
It spends its time in transient behavior on its way to somewhere else, not in mathematically neat
equilibria. It self-organizes and evolves. It creates diversity, not uniformity. That's what
makes the world interesting, that's what makes it beautiful, and that's what makes it work.”
Understanding the endogenous nature of systems and how they can shape the fabric of our reality
constitutes a turning point in one’s personal development journey.
Today I will attempt to explain how a systems-thinking mindset
can re-engineer the way one approaches one’s endeavors.
“Remember always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows,
is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your
assumptions and add their own.” This is my model.
When we look at a system, rather than comparing it to what we want it to do and then saying it is
failing if it doesn’t do that, we should instead look at what it is doing well,
and then study how it is designed to do that. Whenever you face a setback or things don’t
go the way you have planned, there is absolutely no reason to get discouraged.
Let’s say you worked hard on a project, but you eventually failed. Your failure depends
on various reasons, but that doesn’t mean that the system of “working hard” failed.
While working hard on hard problems you train your memory muscle and you
improve your analytical thinking, which results in overall better problem-solving ability.
Eventually, you will succeed on a similar project and
the overall working system improves. Systems Thinking can help us see that
“failing” systems are essentially a way to evolve our thinking patterns.
In our society, most of the conundrums we face are a consequence of our inability to connect the dots
in the relations between our systems. As Donella Meadows writes in her book:
“There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum.”
Let’s use an example from real life. In most countries, the problem of gang related violence,
especially in youngsters, is usually attempted to be solved by more policing,
because event-oriented thinking suggests that violence is solved by imposing order.
However, the problem of youngsters joining gangs is often related to family dysfunction. And the
family issues may be related to unemployment, and so on. It is a structural issue that requires a
systems-thinking approach. Problems do not occur in isolation, but in relation to each other.
This also applies to the way we approach problem solving.
Whenever you feel frustrated by a problem you face and you think you are never going
to reach a solution, try and think of other areas that affect your problem.
Let’s say you are facing social anxiety. This is a psychological issue that is
deeply rooted in the constitution and psychological background of the individual, but
it might also be a byproduct of the environment that the individual decides to inhabit.
Maybe you don’t go out a lot. Maybe you don’t expose
yourself to unfamiliar situations. Maybe you don’t partake in group activities often enough.
Systems Thinking can help us see that what may seem as an
isolated problem is actually part of an interconnected network of related events.
It is a critical tenet of systems thinking to always learn from your
experiences regardless of their negative or positive nature.
Becoming aware of what a system tells you every day is an asset.
By learning how to evaluate the feedback you get, you develop an awareness that allows
you to learn from what the system tells you. In every endeavor you embark on, be constantly
aware of your accomplishments and try and evaluate your progress on a regular basis.
Feedback coming from both yourself and other people related to the endeavor,
mainly experts not random outsiders, is endemic to the fruition of the endeavor.
As you attempt to optimize a system, bear in mind that results,
after applying feedback, do not occur instantly. “You can’t navigate well in an interconnected,
feedback-dominated world unless you take your eyes off short-term events and look for long term
behavior and structure; unless you are aware of false boundaries and bounded rationality;
unless you take into account limiting factors, nonlinearities and delays.” - Donella Meadows
For instance, if we give a person medication and they don’t get better fast, it would be
dangerous to give them more medication instead of simply wait for the medication to kick in.
Understanding these delays is important so that we don’t overreact during a lag period,
thinking that no change is happening, when in fact it is just delayed.
We usually have a bad tendency to judge early whenever we attempt
to change something in our lives. If we don’t see immediate results, we get discouraged and give up.
The idea of delay is crucial to the systems-thinking concept. It takes
time to experience lasting, optimized results and this is an integral part of any serious system.
“Addiction is finding a quick and dirty solution to the symptom of the problem,
which prevents or distracts one from the harder and longer-term task of solving the real problem.”
Whatever your personal ambitions and goals might be,
when it comes to systems thinking you need to embrace long term solutions instead of quick
and easy fixes. Long term solutions require the proper understanding of
each part, for the stability of a system is predicated on the harmony between the parts.
That’s such a crucial aspect of personal development and that’s why I often
suggest the adoption of a generalist mindset. The generalist mindset urges you to delve
into different topics and, eventually, try to develop an interdisciplinary approach
when it comes to thinking and learning. You start to think in systems and this
mode of cognition leads you to deeper states of consciousness that challenge the way you
interpret the world. You become more aware of your own existence, your own limitations,
and your own potential. The mechanics of the world start to make sense and you start to perceive
patterns. As philosopher Isaiah Berlin once said: “To understand is to perceive patterns.”