Systems thinking

An Introduction to Systems Thinking by Gerald Midgley

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• published: 03 Oct 2014
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Plenary talk from the First Global Conference on Research Integration and Implementation: “An Introduction to Systems Thinking: Integration and Implementation in the Face of Wicked Problems.” This talk provides an introduction to systems thinking for people with little prior knowledge of the field. It is useful to identify four key systems thinking skills: 1. Exploring boundaries – understanding the inclusion, exclusion and marginalisation of stakeholders and the issues that concern them. 2. Appreciating multiple perspectives – how and why stakeholders frame issues in different ways. 3. Understanding relationships – networks of interconnections within and across systems. 4. Thinking in terms of systems themselves – organised wholes with properties that cannot be anticipated by analysing any one part of the system in isolation. Different theories, concepts, methodologies and methods help with the practical application of these systems thinking skills. Selected examples are described and illustrated with brief case studies from action research projects undertaken in the UK and New Zealand. The four selected examples are: the theory of Boundary Critique for exploring boundaries; Soft Systems Methodology for appreciating multiple perspectives; System Dynamics modelling for understanding relationships; and the Viable System Model for thinking about governance and organisation in whole system terms. The case studies from practice demonstrate that systems approaches provide valuable ways forward for dealing with intransigent problems characterised by: * Complex and uncertain interactions, with consequences that cannot easily be predicted; * Multiple goals (e.g., economic, social and environmental) in tension with one another; * Multiple scales (e.g., local, regional, national and global); * Multiple agencies, organisations, groups and communities involved or affected; * Multiple perspectives on defining both the problem and potential solutions; * Conflict, power relations and vested interests making change difficult; and/or * Scepticism due to unintended consequences from previous attempted solutions. Nevertheless, no one methodology or method can respond equally well to all of these complexities, and there is considerable room for the further development of systems theory, concepts, methodologies, methods and practical applications. Please note: in the section of the video where the Viable System Model is discussed the last slide in the progression of slides about this model has not been reproduced. You can see this slide in this Powerpoint presentation on http://i2s.anu.edu.au/resources/systems-thinking-introduction. Speaker biography: Gerald Midgley is Professor of Systems Thinking at the University of Hull, UK. He also holds Adjunct Professorships at the University of Queensland, Australia; the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Mälardalen University, Sweden; and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. From 2003-2010, he was a Senior Science Leader in the Social Systems Group at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (New Zealand). He has had over 300 papers on systems thinking and stakeholder engagement published in international journals, edited books and practitioner magazines, and has been involved in a wide variety of public sector, community development, technology foresight and resource management research projects. He is the 2013/14 President of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, and has written or edited 11 books including, Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology, and Practice (Kluwer, 2000); Operational Research and Environmental Management: A New Agenda (Operational Research Society, 2001); Systems Thinking, Volumes I-IV (Sage, 2003); Community Operational Research: OR and Systems Thinking for Community Development (Kluwer, 2004); and Forensic DNA Evidence on Trial: Science and Uncertainty in the Courtroom (Emergent, 2011). Introduced by Daniel Walker. The First Global Conference on Research Integration and Implementation was held in Canberra in Australia, online and at three co-conferences (Lueneburg in Germany, The Hague in the Netherlands and Montevideo in Uruguay), 8-11 September 2013.