Feedback and control
Feedback is a fundamental concept in systems thinking, and lack of appropriate feedback is often a cause of system failure. The idea can be illustrated by a doctor treating a …
Course: Systems Thinking and Complexity
Can we be objective when analysing systems?
In the last step you were asked the questions: which country do you live in? do you think in five years most British citizens will have higher incomes as a …
Systems, boundaries and environments
One of the challenging aspects of systems is knowing where the boundary lies that separates the system from its environment. Sometimes this depends on your point of view. For example, …
Subjectivity and objectivity in systems thinking
An interesting and important question in systems thinking is whether social systems exist in an objective way or whether they are subjective constructs. Consider a social situation you know well. …
Parts, wholes and holism
This video summarises an argument made by one of the fathers of systems thinking, Russell Ackoff. As long ago as the 1960s Ackoff gave lectures which criticised the practices of …
Systems thinking for a complex world
Systems are formed from sets of interacting parts where every part effects and is effected by every other part, and the behaviour of the system emerges from the interactions. On …