Working with John Flach & Adam Walls on the system thinking cartoons (e.g. see here) I re-emerged myself in the topic. Having completed my master within Henk Stassen’s group of Man-Machine-Systems, I’ve had <understatement> some exposure to systems, thinking in systems, and applying systems as means to analyze (parts of) the world. </understatement> But even though Henk managed to attract a diverse group of amazing teachers, at the time, the ideas of systems were not explained as simply or elegantly as done by Russ Ackoff.
I first learned about systems and systems thinking in my “Technical Systems” class. Below, you’ll see Figure 1, which I borrowed from the beginning of our class book. It explains what a system is. Basically, it is something we look at separately from everything around it. To define a system, we pick a border that shows what’s inside and outside it, and we look at how things interact across that border. For instance, in the picture, there’s a force (F) that pushes on both the system and the things around it, with the same strength but in opposite directions. In simple terms, a system can be anything we choose, as long as we decide where its borders are.
For example imagine a wrangler, which is a cowboy and a horse together. We can draw a line around the wrangler like shown below. Ta-da! We’ve got ourselves a system!
Russ Ackoff had a more intriguing way of describing a system and added two conditions. First, looking at the relation between a system and it’s environment, Russ defines that “A system is whole which is defined by its function in a larger system of which it is a part.” One consequence is the realisation that a system can’t be separated from what’s around it, from it’s context. For instance, take the same wrangler setup you see below. If we put it in a different context or environment, is it still the same system? Would a veterinarian or a rancher see the same system as you? Nope! Each viewer brings an own value system. Each environment poses a different function and brings to afore different qualities making the cowboy-horse duo unique in different ways. A system is the value or function that it provides to the larger system of which it is a part, and inherently ties thinking in systems to an emphasis on value and function.
Second, looking at the relation between a system and it’s components, Russ defines that a system is a whole made of components where none of the components by itself has the qualities or properties that the system has, the so called emergent qualities. In other words, a system is like a team where the individual players don’t have all the skills or abilities that the team as a whole does. For instance, a cowboy and a horse, when working together, can round up cattle. But on their own, the horse or the cowboy can’t do the job.
Since the whole system has special qualities that none of its individual parts have, it means that no single part can boss the whole system around on its own. While each part can affect the whole system, none of them can take full control. Think of it like a partnership between the horse and the cowboy – they work together, and it’s not one bossing the other around.
Another consequence is that the qualities that are unique to the system as a whole are lost when you split the system into components. If you splt our wrangler into a component horse and component cowboy, none of these components can independently replicate the full functionality of the wrangler. Therefore, it is important to consider systems as holistic entities with emergent properties and you will lose that overview when looking solely at the individual components outside their context.
Last, the result of a system having unique qualities that none of its components has is that a system’s definition isn’t just the sum of its individual parts; it is defined by how these parts interact with each other. When the same components interact differently, they can exhibit different qualities and offer different value. You might even call it a different system.
So, what exactly is a system? It’s essentially a perspective on the world that helps us in grasping the value or purpose of a particular part of the world by examining its connection with the broader context, and how the interactions among its components contribute to delivering that value. It as a perspective that helps me to explore and get insight into how the world operates based on value and purpose.
Original Post on LinkedIn