Intro To Systems Thinking Summary

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

“Stop looking for who’s to blame; instead start asking, What’s the system?” Donella Meadows

Systems Thinking is a way of looking at the world as a series of interconnected webs, all of them interacting with each other. Is about seeing the world from a meta-perspective. It is used to change things larger than yourself.

Reasons to study ST:

-          To understand and changer larger structures

-          To realize your life purpose and have a big impact on the world

-          To change the world

-          It is the Yellow stage in Spiral Dynamics

-          To avoid collective disaster

System: A set of interconnected elements. It is composed by the elements – mostly physical – and their relationships, which are much less tangible. The relationships are much more important than the elements themselves. A system causes their own behaviors and serves a function/goal. The function is more important than the relationships and the elements of the system. One of the primary purpose of systems is homeostasis (protect themselves).

Goals > Relationships > Elements

What isn’t a system? Scattered parts which are not connected are not a system.

There are problems we have to face as humanity. These are persistent systemic problems. Some examples:

-          Poverty

-          Shrinking Middle Class

-          Global Warming and the Environment

-          Drug Addiction

-          War

-          Obesity

-          Crime

-          Low-Quality Marketing

-          Education

-          Unemployment

-          Terrorism

-          Corruption

-          Depression

-          Endangered Species

-          Runaway Materialism

These problems are very difficult to solve and the only way is to solve them is by thinking in systems.

The Principles of Systemic Thinking

1.       Problems are systemic and not personal: It is not some Hitler or Trump that is creating problems. It is poorly designed systems that are creating problems. Start asking: What is the system that is causing this behavior? Issues are much more complicated than we think.

2.       See everything as a system

3.       Non-linearity: Playing the game changes the rule of the game. This mean unpredictability and chaos.

4.       They are very counter-intuitive: Systems are incredibly complex and results are not easy to predict.

5.       Local actions have global impact: You can no longer worry about your personal sphere. You are part of a larger system and your behaviors will affect yourself and the system you are in.

6.       Becoming conscious of back-firing mechanisms: Sometimes you change something in a system and it back-fires on you. Systems’ biggest enemy is its own behavior

7.       There are no easy, brute force solutions: Systems are all about balance and harmony. Those type of solutions will collaps the system and make it worse.

8.       Intuition and Holism vs Reductionism: We have to recognize that reductionism is not going to fly with high-level problems.

9.       Being aware of false boundaries: In reality, there are no fixed boundaries. They are conceptual in nature so don’t get bought into that. Just by understanding the boundary differently, we can create a new solution and perspective

10.   The world is dynamic rather than static: Everything is constantly morphing and evolving/devolving.

11.   Complexity, valuing nuance, wisdom and learning: You need to be studying and learning all the time. The power in working with systems is not by manipulating but understanding them. A systems thinker will spend a lot of time studying and understanding the system.

12.   Take preventative actions rather than fixing problem: It is about being forward looking and having a long-term horizon. It is about sustaining the system for decades on end. Each action has a big consequence!

13.   Admitting the unknown: Systems thinkers admit that systems are incredibly complex and it requires a deep and wide understanding to start trying to solve the problems.

14.   Self-reflection: Systems thinkers need to self-reflect. They understand the system creates their own problems so by reflecting on themselves they can start to solve them.

15.   Looking for the root causes of issues rather than the superficial aspects

16.   Concern for balance: STers really appreciate the ying-yang of life. Systems usually have many opposing forces and eliminating one of them can have huge implications.

17.   Having a global concern rather than having tribal concern: ST integrates the whole world. We see animals, people and environment are equally important.

18.   Materialism is not the only game in town and success is not the most important goal. Growth at all cost is just a cancer.

19.   Sustainability is key for STers

20.   Recognizing the dangers of self-interest: People in the lower stages of Spiral Dynamics pursue their own interests without realizing its dangers.

21.   Changing paradigms is a huge leverage point for changing systems: If we shift our perspective, solutions may appear. An example is the mind-body problem.

22.   Integrating multiple perspectives

23.   Studying patterns and cycles: Systems are cyclical. You need to study patterns through times!

24.   Studying systems vs manipulating them: Study them first

25.   Studying feedback loops and realizing its implications.

 

 

[el_duderino]

+ a kick in the ass (end of video)

don't miss out on this one

[sgn]

Omg forgot to watch the new video today. I must be sick or something.

Thanks.

[Joseph Maynor]

I'm realizing that the more I treat my life like an engineer would treat creating or optimizing some system, the easier it becomes to change my life.  Creating and programming-in modules, strategically, in light of the theory, allows me to tweak my own life like a programmer tweaks a machine.  Personal development work is almost like anti-malware software in the sense that you want your life to be giving you the results you want and not to be hung-up on bugs or slowed-down on irrelevant processing.  You wanna be running smooth and happy, on point, and getting the results you want.  So, I find that systems thinking, even thinking of myself as a system, has really allowed me to optimize my life by breaking it down into sub-systems or modules, like the way an engineer approaches optimizing a machine.  And this kind of "probing and plugging" paradigm has allowed me to create some great results.  We are just complex systems that need to be optimized, and we alone must craft the modules and infrastructure and get them plugged -into our own lives.  I realize now that this systems thinking is a meta-narrative that I find useful in my personal development.  It allows me to chop myself up into manageable variables which then can then be isolated, optimized, and measured.  I like to merge the scientist with the poet in my life.  So, the new video is right up my alley this week Leo!  I feel so caught-up finally, like I am right where I need to be right now.  I find that working on infrastructure has really improved my life.  Find infrastructure that implements your ground-rules.  Your ground-rules are the things that you need to do to get what you want and to give-up what you need to give-up.  Implementing infrastructure, often by trial-and-error -- like plugging modules into my daily routine like an electrical engineer might test different circuit possibilities -- has given me a ton of results.  Find what works, and then bam!  you get that module plugged-in and handled and now you can go work on the next module to perfect the next optimization to your life.  And you work your way up the exponential curve of results.  That way you solve problems permanently instead of having to keep circling-back -- you can move on to the next hack, next optimization, and get the next module designed, built, and finally wired-in.  So, I find this kind of systems-thinking useful and practical in personal development. 

Edited June 12, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Leo Gura]

@Joseph Maynor Don't get too hooked on it. You will have to give up all that logical thinking to evolve higher.

Engineers are ultimately very ignorant people. Because you cannot solve life's greatest issues with thinking.

If the human race dies out, it will because of engineers. Remember that.

What we need is more humanity, not more engineering.

[Leo Gura]

@Fidelio It's about harmony. Right now the world is totally technology obsessed.

[Pallero]

Thank you. I enjoyed this episode very much. Thinking of my problems as collective rather than personal has created some distance and made me feel better in my life, but I still find some issues difficult to wrap my mind around system thinking wise. 

For example, what's the deal with people who accept their children (and themselves) only on certain conditions? I am both a victim of this and I also do this to myself and others. Why can't people accept each other as they are? No one expects babies to do anything and yet they get treated like little miracles. Why can't we treat grown-ups the same way?

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@el_duderino I loved the end best too, especially the swearing at selfish dodo's...(tears of truth loving laughter)!

@Leo Gura Thanks, amazing! So much gratitude for your truth, courage and bold revolutionary ideas! Perfect timing as usual.  If any of us temporarily have to participate in a particular distorted system (before we can begin to change it), is the best path to go forth considering as many different perspectives as possible?

@Lynnel & @Revolutionary Think, this video is for you guys!

@Pallero Subconscious programing and mirroring likely, but I agree

If you are working on your life purpose, this video is also for you! Luckily my purpose fits this model (I just need more action/mastery/etc).

I'm still pretty green, have been for so long....but this video gave me hope to move up! I already do so many of these things (just not to that extent yet). I'm super solutions oriented (drives other women crazy), very "long-term picturing" (also drives gratification-ers nuts), can see so many possibilities could be this, this, this or this etc (puts others in a whirlwind of overwhelm)....from my experience this isn't always as positive as the video makes it out to be. For example, these awesome mechanisms are often hijacked by negative passengers in my mind (coming up with all of the negative potentials, etc)...or I become ridiculously indecisive with all of the options I can imagine,(choices can be almost infinite) etc...how do you develop your systems thinking further/ more holistically inclusive, etc, while at the same time, taming some of the mechanisms that help it function?

[Lynnel]

@Epiphany_Inspired Why is that ?

I wanna know cause an outside perspective may help  

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@Lynnel& @Revolutionary Think I thought this is the video for you guys immediately, undoubtedly... because it's a revolutionary video, that's also an actual "how to revolutionize"... from the inside out.....of all of Leo's video's if I had to pick the one that would be most suited to you two specifically it's this one! (for all I know, Leo might have made it just for you...lol...)

[Revolutionary Think]

@Epiphany_Inspired Yes for a long time I wanted to change the system but, things like this take time you have to learn about all of its ins and outs first. I was always really bothered of how I wasn't making any progress with my main goal of reforming the education system but, now I have pushed that frustration aside. In fact I joined something called the DLA which stands for Digital Learning Academy and I started learning about 3D printing and I'm having the time of my life 3D printing things. I really like it because I get to be creative and as Leo mentioned in the video always be learning about new things and where the future is headed or you'll go extinct like the dodo. 3D printing AKA additive manufacturing is a field that's about to boom in 1 or 2 years and when it does I want to be on the cutting edge of it. 

Also I've gotten involved in my local government by attending a town hall meeting and talking to my congresswoman about the education system that is outdated and stuck in the past. I got a card of her district director with a phone number on it so I can contact the school board. I also made a video about what I always wanted to say about the teachers and the education system filled with logic and common sense. Although I do admit I condescend a lot 

 

[Lynnel]

@Epiphany_Inspired

I've watched the video quite a while ago and I found it irrelevant because I'm already focused on deep inner work. That's my go to answer to everything. Deep inner work and that's it. Striving to change ANY system - or anything external - before doing the inner work is simply retarded.

While if you do enough work on yourself you will most likely have impact on the world by giving your gift. But that's the only real and powerful thing you can do.

There is this whole fantasm of changing the education system @Revolutionary Think where everyone is always saying it's garbage and we need to reform it and how school is bad - but no one is even able to provide a functionnal model from a economical, change manadgement, record managdement, cultural, psychological etc. standpoints ( as you're reading this you may be even wodering why you would need to account for all those things) . It is undoable by one person alone and it would require a lot of specialists and an amazing coordination/cooperation between them !

While most people I met who are trying to change some part of society cannot even fucking lose weight.

Amazing.

 

 

 

[Revolutionary Think]

@Lynnel I get where you are coming from. Like on the plane when they tell you to put the oxygen mask on yourself in case of an emergency before you put it on anyone else. I myself though my life has changed for the better it's not perfect right now but, it is changing. I used to have a lot inner frustration and anger but, since I have started meditating and thinking about certain things it's starting to go away.

I'm just wondering if the people in the Civil Rights movement like Martin Luther King had the same attitude. MLK I'm sure wasn't perfect and must've had some form of human flaws but, what if he never made his "I have a Dream" speech and fought for Civil Rights? I'm sure things would've probably gotten better eventually on the other hand though because of the actions he took he sped up the process. Also I was overweight and I went to the gym just like Leo and I lost the weight. So it all depends on how dedicated a person is into making changes in his or her life.

As for the education system I'm not saying that I'll create a perfect one far from that but, I'm hoping to create a more reasonable one. As it is now it's just so wrong on so many different levels and dimensions. The most obvious one being that there is no talk about money in the education system which to me is amazingly stupid because so much of a persons life in this modern age is about how he or she can manage and maintain their personal finances. All I'm wondering is if you can read this article and tell me what you think http://bakshandehariel.wixsite.com/website/single-post/2017/01/03/Execution-of-Solutions  

[Epiphany_Inspired]

It's kind of like I'm wading through a swamp of shit in my life right now @Lynnel @Revolutionary Think so forgive me if I'm not myself/ embodying authentic or something...anyway...I agree with both of you...of course self mastery is most crucial, at the same time too much focus there, without serving the multi-verse/ helping to evolve the collective world (at whatever stage...or weight...lol...) would likely be too selfish....