Think-in-Systems
An intuitive Introduction to Systems Engineering and Dynamics
Project maintained by sohamphanseiitb Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham
More on Systems
By now you must have got a perspective of how we can apply Systems Thinking to simple things and draw important conclusions. In the last article we saw what a system is made of - elements, inter-relations and function/purpose. In this post, lets’s delve deeper into how systems are formed.
A system is more that the sum of its parts.
Lets understand it this way -
Observe the differences in opinions about the thing. You will understand how essential is it to look at things from a holistic perspective, and how wrong an opinion will you form if you look at it at a locally. So, a system is not equal to its parts but something more than that. Infact, there’s a Sufi saying that goes like,
“You think you understand two because you understand one and one. But you forget you must also understand and”.
So not just elements, but the inter-connections and the function the system performs or the purpose it serves are equally important. Systems can be simple, when we can predict how they will behave in the future, they are complex when we can’t. Systems can be highly functional. Most importantly Systems can be embedded within other systems, which themselves are a part of a larger system.
Let’s see some more examples of systems to make the idea, clear and easy to understand. Deep down, it all depends on your point of view, a bird, an aeroplane, a tree, a forest, humans, cities, economies, solar systems, galaxies all are in principle, Systems. It is only the nature and complexity of the processes going on in these systems is different, but the principles which govern their, so-called, ‘System-ness is the same. Systems can adapt to changing scenarios, they can repair themselves over time, they can respond, react to situations and can display evolutionary behavior.
In the last post, we looked at a school or an university from a systems perspective. Now, lets take a cricket team, or for that matter any sport team. Can we dissect and analyze it from the Systems perspective, why not, lets try!
Lets first point out the function a sport team executes. It can be winning matches, pursuing one’s passion, making the country proud or something as frugal as making money! The elements of the system consists of the players, coach, equipment and other auxiliary staff.
All these elements are inter-related in some way, the behavior of the system depends on how all of these elements are inter-connected and form a whole; the players’ communications, coach’s strategy, the laws of physics governing the motion of the ball and the bat, the sense of team bonding among the members.
You must have by now, understood how we analyze systems in general, I would want that you apply the same type of analysis and identify to each of the following systems:
- The e-ticketing system
- The Traffic management system
- Courier and Logistic system
- The educational system (you are a part of)
Stay tuned!