Systems-thinking is what we call a paradigm. A dictionary definition of a
paradigm would read something like this: A worldview underlying the theories and
methodology of a particular scientific subject.
Thus we can understand a paradigm to be the foundation that shapes our way of
seeing the world it is the assumptions and methods out of which we build our
theories. Now there are two fundamentally
different paradigms within science. One is called analysis and the other
synthesis. Analysis is the traditional method of reasoning taken within modern
science whereby we try to gain an understanding of a system by breaking it
down into its constituent elements. On the other hand synthesis, which is the
foundation to systems thinking, works in the reverse direction, trying to gain an
understanding of an entity through the context of its relations within a whole
that it is part of, but let's start by talking a bit about analysis.
Analysis is based upon the premise that our basic unit of interest should be the
individual parts of a system. From this follows a process of reasoning called
reductionism. Reductionism is the process of breaking down or reducing systems to
their constituent parts, and then describing the whole system primarily as
simply the sum of these constituent elements.
Reductionism is often described in terms of a three-step process that we use for
analyzing things. Firstly, we take something and we break
it down into its constituent elements. This is deeply intuitive to us when we
wish to understand how a car, bird, or business works.
The first thing we do is isolate it by taking it into a garage or lab and
decompose it into its constituent parts. Secondly, once we've broken down the
system into its most elementary components, we analyze these individual
components in isolation in order to describe their properties and their
functioning in isolation. Lastly, we recombine these components
into the original system that can now be described in terms of the properties of
its' individual elements. Reductionist approach is the fundamental
method behind modern science and, by extension, our modern understanding of
the world. It has proven highly successful in many ways from
understanding atoms and DNA to designing the modern corporation and nation state,
but as successful as it has been, it also has inherent limitations to it.
Because we understand systems by breaking the parts down and isolating
them, the reductionist paradigm systematically and inherently demotes
the relationships between these components. Thus within this paradigm of
reductionism, the whole system is implicitly thought to be nothing more
than the sum of its parts. Thus, analysis works well when there is a
low level of interconnectivity and interdependencies within the system we
are modeling. Although this may be true for some systems, it is certainly not
always the case. Many of the systems we are interested in describing have a high
level of interconnectivity and interdependency. Examples being eco
systems, computer networks and many types, of social systems.
These systems in contrary are primarily defined by the relations within the
system and not the static properties of their elements. We can and often do
continue to use analysis to try to describe them, but the reductionist
approach is not designed for this and thus we need to change our basic
paradigm to one that is more focused upon these relations as opposed to the
components and this is where synthesis and Systems thinking comes in.
Synthesis means the combination of components or elements to form a
connected whole. It is a process of reasoning that describes an entity
through the context of its relations and functioning within the whole system that
it is a part of. Systems thinking is the process of
reasoning called synthesis and it is also referred to as being what is called,
holistic meaning, that it is characterized by the belief that the
parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by
reference to the whole. Thus synthesis focuses on the relations
between the elements. That is to say, the way those elements are put together or
arranged into a functioning entirety and like with analysis, we can also identify
a few key stages in this process of reasoning.
The first step in the process is to identify the system that our object of
interest is a part of. Examples of this might be a bird being part of a broader
ecosystem or person being part of a greater culture.
Next, we try to gain a broad outline of how this whole system functions. So for
example, a hard drive is part of a computer and to properly understand it
we need to have some understanding of the whole computer.
Lastly, we try to understand how the parts are interconnected and arranged to
function as an entirety. By completing this process we can
identify the relations within which our entity is embedded, its place and
function within the whole, and within systems thinking this context is
considered the primary frame of reference for describing something.