System Thinking? What is it, it's working and tools.

What is system thinking?
System can be defined as collection of various components/parts. Which are inter-connected with each other in order to achieve some objective. All of these components affect each other in a system. The study of these systems comes under a branch known as system thinking. It involves studying the relationships and
interactions among the components at a broader perspective. This makes system thinkers different from component thinkers. Which only see a specific event in the system. There are numerous examples of systems around us. Like solar system, banking system, educational system, ecosystem, business system etc.

How it works

The working of every system can be explained with above figure. In every system we need inputs, which we put into a system. These inputs are then processed to produce something. This leads us to outputs. These three constitute the primary working of system. Apart from these three, Environment and Feedback also play an important role in system working. Feedback is simply when output directly affects the input. Let’s take an example of a student. What he/she studies during the course can be taken as an input. How he/she understands can be taken as a process. The output is the performance he/she shows in examination. The environment part constitutes of what kind company he/she has, what are his/her home conditions etc. At last, feedback involves evaluating yourself on the basis of output.

Tools of System Thinking
1. Interconnectedness
Good system thinkers always believe that things are interconnected. In other words, everything needs something
else. We as humans need air, water and food for survival.

2. Circularity
This means things don’t happen in linear fashion. The involvement of feedback loop makes things happen in circular way.

3. Emergence
Emergence can be described as a natural phenomenon. Which happen when things interact with each other. We can also set some simple rules and let emergence happen. Good system
thinkers prefer emergence over silos. Where we force things the way we want them to happen.

4. Whole
We know in a system, parts are interconnected. So it’s good practice to study system as a whole, rather than a part.

5. Synthesis
Synthesis means to see interconnectedness and to manage
system as whole. It is different to analysis, where system is break into parts.

6. Relationship
Relationship means that different parts of the system are interconnected and related to each other. This is opposite to isolation, where each part of the system is said to be isolated. It doesn’t affect the other parts of system.