Systems thinking: What, why, when, where, and how?
The following tips are designed to get you started, whether you’re trying to introduce systems thinking in your company or attempting to implement the tools in an organization that already supports this approach.
Tools for systems thinkers: Systems mapping
In order to build a new multidimensional thinking framework, we need to discover the dynamics and interconnectedness of the systems at play. This is where systems mapping tools come in — they provide an exploration of the system, communicate understanding, and allow for the identification of knowledge gaps, intervention points, and insights.
How I’ve blended systems thinking into my design work
Systems thinking is also a sensitivity to the circular nature of the world we live in; an awareness of the role of structure in creating the conditions we face; a recognition that there are powerful laws of systems operating that we are unaware of; a realization that there are consequences to our actions that we are oblivious to.
