Dynamics of Systems PDF%5b1%5d - SystemsThinking COMM331:...

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Systems Thinking
COMM331: Simulation of a Socially Innovative
Enterprise
Systems Thinking
Question:
What is the most important element in an enterprise?
Origins of Systems Thinking
• Founded in 1956 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) Professor Jay Forrester
• Need for a better way of testing new ideas about social
systems

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What is a System?
Video 1
What is a System?
• A collection of things that form a group.
• The interaction of its parts, rather than the
sum of its individual parts.
What is a System?
A typical systems day
We use, influence and are influenced by systems every
day:
• Our biological system tells us to get up.
• We use a mechanical system to shower.
• Another one makes our toast, keeps the milk cold, gets
us to work.
• We are part of a human and social system when at
work.
• The environmental and ecological systems determine
whether it is rainy or sunny.

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What is a System?
Examples:
• In nature, systems thinking examples include
ecosystems in which various elements such as
air, water, movement, plants and animals
work together to survive or perish.
• In organisations, systems consist of people,
structures and processes that work together
to make an organisation healthy or unhealthy.
What is a System?
YouTube ‐ What is a System?
What is Systems Thinking?
• The process of understanding how things influence one another
within a whole.
• Views “problems” as part of an overall system, as opposed to
reacting to specific parts, outcomes or events.
• A set of habits or practices within a framework that bases itself on
the belief that the component parts of a system can best be
understood in the context of relationships with each other and
with other systems, rather than in isolation.

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What is Systems Thinking?
YouTube ‐ Systems Thinking
Traditional Thinking vs. Systems Thinking
Traditional Thinking vs. Systems Thinking
Traditional thinking
• Parts
• Objects
• Events
• Isolation
• Specificity
• Statics
• Simplicity
Systems thinking
• Wholes
• Relationships
• Structures
• Interdependence
• Generality
• Dynamics
• Complexity

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Traditional Thinking vs. Systems Thinking
• The approach of systems thinking is fundamentally
different from that of traditional forms of analysis.