By now, you must have understood 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, let’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 it is to look at things from a holistic perspective and how wrong an opinion you will form if you look at it locally. So, a system is not equal to its parts but something more than that. There’s a Sufi saying that goes like this,
“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 interconnections and the function the system performs or the purpose it serves is equally essential. Systems can be simple when we can predict how they will behave in the future; they are complex when we can’t. They can be highly functional. They can be embedded within systems, which are themselves a part of yet another 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 airplane, a tree, a forest, humans, cities, economies, solar systems, and galaxies all are, in principle, Systems. Only the nature and complexity of the processes in these systems are different, but the principles which govern their so-called ‘System-ness are the same. Systems can adapt to changing scenarios; they can repair themselves over time, respond, react to situations, and display evolutionary behavior.
In the last post, we looked at a school or a university from a systems perspective. Now, let’s take a cricket team, or for that matter, any sports team. Can we dissect and analyze it from the Systems perspective? Why not? Let’s try!
Let’s first point out the function a sports 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 consist of the players, coach, equipment, and other auxiliary staff.
All these elements are interrelated in some way; system behavior depends on how these are interconnected and form a whole. For instance, the sports team and its goals to win matches rely on the players’ expertise, the coach’s strategy, the laws of physics governing the ball’s motion and the bat, and 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 each of the following systems:
- The e-ticketing system
- The Traffic management system
- Courier and Logistic system
- The educational system (which you are a part of, and you seriously wish you weren’t :P)
- The free market system
Stay tuned!