WHAT IS SYSTEMS THINKING?

Can you give a simple explanation - what is systems thinking ? Is there such a universal concept in relation to business, engineering and management?

Most of us operate with a “everyday” understanding of the term “system” and mean by “systemic” personal organization, diligence, the desire to foresee everything, take into account all sorts of details and in general everything that may be important. The consistency that people bring into their work is "thoughtfulness", discipline in execution, adherence to some kind of plan. However, especially diligent managers and employees, for whom everything is connected with everything, as a result of such "thoughtfulness" of plans and discipline of their implementation, an even greater mess in their heads and affairs is formed, as well as a constant rush in all areas of work. "Consistency" is often confused with "consistency" - and systematically bad or incorrect thinking leads to disastrous results.

One of the examples of understanding systems thinking was shown by G.O. Gref at his recent lecture for the students of the Skolkovo business school . In his opinion (see from 1:01:50), systems thinking is the ability to combine analysis (understood as the ability to dive deep into details) and synthesis (understood as the ability to emerge from these details in time). Of course, it is good to have this ability, just as it is good to be rich and healthy, not sick and poor. Alas, such an explanation does not use the concept of "system" itself, that is, by definition, it is not systems thinking - thinking using the concept of "system" and the principles of the systems approach.The story about the need to dive into details and emerge from them in time does not even give a chance to understand how to achieve mastery of this technique, and how to apply it in specific daily activities to a businessman, engineer or manager.

Some people can keep talking about the postulates of the systems approach, recall the classical understanding of the "system"  - the sum of interacting parts that together make up the whole so that this whole is more than the sum of the parts. They can even operate with such properties of the "system" as integrity, emergence and hierarchy. But this is usually where people's knowledge of the systems approach and systems thinking ends what is engineering.

What do the leaders of world companies really mean when they talk about systems thinking ?! What, then, is taught in the courses of systems thinking ?

Systems thinking is a discipline (or, more precisely, a transdiscipline), which defines the conceptual minimum, models and principles of composing work products. Work products are system descriptions that link different views of the world in relation to at least entrepreneurial, engineering and managerial interests, as well as created successful systems. The systems thinking transdiscipline is studied in the same way as physics or management. There is a textbook "Systems Thinking 2020" written by A. Levenchuk .

On the other hand, systems thinking is one of the behaviors of intelligence... No wonder the word "thinking" is present. Human systems thinking reproduces the knowledge of transdiscipline, that is, a person thinks with the help of mastered concepts and models, and describes the world through the corresponding work products. A person with systems thinking literally speaks the system language, forms system descriptions and participates in the creation of successful systems.

Systems thinking gives versatility , speed and qualitywhen working with different stakeholders in solving new complex problems. Systems thinking is demonstrated in the speed of creating successful systems, and for this it is necessary to be able to work with different interests, which are taken into account (satisfied) by drawing up a system description. This consideration of different interests allows us to solve the most difficult problems that face humanity or an individual person. Moreover, in a variety of areas of activity.

Knowledge of the term "system" and the ability to pay attention to the integrity and hierarchy of the system (coupled with emergence - the fact that the properties of the system are not reducible to the properties of its parts) is not enough for productive work in the modern complex and high-speed world. It is no longer possible to rely on old textbooks of the systems approach: for example, the works of Bertalanffy and Ackoff are no longer a demonstration of the best systems thinking today. Life has changed, the world is talking about the system approach 2.0 - the natural science concept of a system as a certain object (“objective” system) has developed and grown into an activity-based understanding of the system, that is, the system is determined by its stakeholders (stakeholders). Or, if earlier the system was interesting for its structure, connections between parts, etc., now the consideration of the system depends on the activity and begins with its stakeholders.