This webpage is a work in progress, so should you revisit it, you might see changes here and there. Perhaps an extension of this page. Perhaps tweaks refining language and clarity in the thoughts and lessons I share.
This page was last updated on February 5, 2021.
Systems Theory and Thinking: A Quick Introduction
I tend to strive to teach the same way I see facts: from a very simple summary toward complex description. Let’s start, then, with a foundational definition for systems. We can build up from there.
Actually, systems is a plural. Let’s start with an even more refined definition: system.
A system is an entity –it’s something– that exists and produces something. For simplicity’s sake, anything and everything is a system.
A system can be tangible or intangible. We can see, feel, hear, taste, touch, even smell a system.
Or a system can be amorphous. You are reading my ideas about systems, you will think about what I wrote and hopefully compare and contrast my ideas against other ideas you have been introduced to, and produce your own ideas about the matter.
To produce something, a system needs and does three things: input, process, output.
Input is a thing a system takes in from outside its world.
Process is an action a system performs upon an input to tranform the input into entirely new thing.
Output is the transformed thing that a system sends out to the world.
It’s that simple
A Very Simple System
Imagine a lump of clay laying beside you. It exists as some indeterminate random shape. You grab that lump and use your hands to shape that odd lump into a cube. You now have a clay cube.
The lump of clay was an input. Shaping was a process. The cube is your output.
Very simple. Something goes in. Something is done. Something comes out.
Systems, as stated above, is the plural of system. So, systems are many of these individual system entities.
And where goes one plural go many:
Inputs, Processes, Outputs.
In the grand scheme of things, that’s how it normally works.
Slightly More Complex System
Now imagine that lump of clay. This time include water, glaze and pigment powders. Take measured amounts of each. Shape clay into a bowl, using water to facilitate shaping. Mix pigments into glaze, using water to set consistency. Paint bowl with glaze. Let dry.
You now have a simple water-resistant decorated bowl.
And if you think about it, the residual processing mess left to be cleaned up.
Four inputs, five processes, two outputs.
Inputs, Processes, Outputs.
Some reading this might critique my simplicity in bowl making, especially if they have any kind of pottery experience. What about the kiln? They ask. What about a wheel? Brushes? Etc.
A kiln is simply a device to dry clay. Of course, because kilns produce not just heat, but also drafts that enhance drying, they produce lighter pots, yet as strong as those dried in open, still air. And kilns vary from simply fire pits to complex devices that not only provide heat and drafts, but regulate humidity and introduce chemicals to produce a variety of different pots and earthenware.
Pottery wheels, brushes, and other tools used to fabricate pots can be seen as inputs, especially if your goal is to produce higher quality earthenware than I would without these input resources.
More inputs and more complex processes produce complex outputs.
Systems Theory and Systems Thinking
For the sake of those who stumbled on this webpage because it came up when they googled “systems theory” or “systems thinking”, and especially for the sake of my students sent to this page as part of their reading assignment, there are two ways to look at systems: theory or thinking.
Let’s quickly review two things I said above:
1. Inputs. Processes. Outputs.
2. More inputs and more complex processes produce complex outputs.
Systems Theory
Systems theory is a science that explores –studies– systems dynamics: inputs, processes, and outputs. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just call them IPO. To put it another way, systems theorists are curious about how IPOs interact with each other. Some researchers explore physiological systems, such as living organisms –you, for example. Food, air, and water go into you. Your gut and lungs does some amazing things with those inputs, and heat, muscle movement, poop, pee, sweat and modified air comes out of you. There are folks who study how and why you as an organic system works. Including the subsystems that occur inside you such as how your lungs isolate oxygen from the air you breathe. And if you breathe in more than plain air, there are folks who study how nicotine, THC, and other chemicals inputs are processed by your organic system.
Social scientists look at different types of systems. My trade is organization theory. We are curious about social and cultural inputs into organization systems, how those organizations process such input and why some process similar inputs one way and other process the same inputs differently, and the nature of the outputs such as improved organization efficiency or social problems such as global warming or political insurrection.
My doctoral committee chair is David Boje. He explores the systems of stories that are told within organizations. I suspect that if Professor Boje was reading this page right now, he’d be chastising me from afar saying “systemicity!” To which I respond to him, “simple story first, David, then big story. Just like exercise. Let’s stretch the muscles first before leaping onto the high stuff, lest we damage our muscular system.”
For those unfamiliar asking “what is systemicity”, I will quote Professor Boje:
"Systemicity is my replacement word for the outdated static linear-hierarchic conceptions of whole ‘system’. Systemicity is defined as the dynamic unfinished, unfinalized, and unmerged, and the interactivity of complexity properties (such as dialogic, recursion, and holographic yielding emergence and self-organization) constituted by narrative-story processes, in the dance of sensemaking. I invoke the word ‘systemicity’ in order to attack the ‘illusion’ that ‘whole system’ exists, because given the paradigm shift to complexity, and the focus on emergence (and self-organization), organizations are continually being reorganized, and never seem to finish long enough to have merged parts or some kind of fixity of wholeness." (2008, p. 29. Emphasis in original).
Pay attention to that “static linear-hierarchic conceptions of whole ‘system’.” That’s important for later.
Systems theory is simply the study of systems. How and why IPOs interact and behave the way they do and the consequences of output into the other systems.
If your desire is fulfilling your curiosity about systems theory, find me. Let’s talk.
Systems Thinking
For most of my students, and I assume readers here, your goal is to have an idea how to lead your organization to success. Be it your organization is a small one-person entrepreneurial venture selling convenience food or a large complex health services operation in either the private for-profit or public health services sector. The rest of this webpage focuses on systems thinking.
Systems thinking is about seeing the organization you lead as something that produces one or more outputs, and then structuring your thoughts around the processes needed to produce that or those outputs, and then thinking about what inputs you need to do those processes.
That is, instead of thinking about the organization system you lead as IPO, you think about it as OPI. You start first with what it is you are tasked to do or make, and then you make a plan to produce that output.
To succeed, you need, to quote a former student, “to know your onions.”
You first need to have a clue about what, exactly, is your output.
An Aside for My Students Assigned to Read This Page
While you think OPI, systems is always written IPO. If you are one of my students, be careful about that. Writing OPI will cost you points. Here's a hint for the exam: Think OPI, write IPO.
Let's Practice Systems Thinking
My first job after earning my Master’s of Public Health degree in health education and promotion was leading a diabetes prevention program for a tribe.
Let’s see if you and I think the same way. Plan your intervention.
Again, systems thinking goes O –> P –> I. So, if your first thought is performing a series of community-based behavior modification activities, then you already fell off the onion truck. You started planning at P, not O.
Let’s try this again. This time start thinking at O. Plan your intervention.
What is it your diabetes prevention program is supposed to produce? What is it supposed to do?
Think about it. But don’t tell me.
Now...
Chop out everything in your head down to only four words. No more.
Four words, not sentences.
Four words a high school student would understand. Not the words a fellow Master’s level practitioner, health clinician or policy-wonk would say.
While you are thinking about it, I’m going to refill my coffee.
. . .
Okay. I’m back. What did you come up with? Remember. No more than a four simple-word sentence.
Here’s what I came up with when I reflected on my organization’s output:
Reduce new diabetes cases.
That’s all. That’s the output of a diabetes prevention program. Prevent new diabetes cases.
But what about reduce amputations? Reduce need for dialysis treatments? What about exercise programs? What about nutrition programs?
Think about it. All of those items in that questions list are either the consequences of diabetes, which would disappear if there were no new diabetes cases. Or they are processes contributing to no new diabetes cases.
When you take a systems thinking, also called systems orientation, perspective to program planning and leadership, you are able to easily identify your mission, set the goals and objectives to accomplish that mission, break down the processes required to achieve those goals and objectives, and identify the inputs –resources– needed to perform those processes.
Let’s Wrap Things Up For Now
On this page I introduced you to systems theory and systems thinking.
Systems theory is the extremely nerdy study of systems.
Systems thinking, also known as systems orientation, is using a systems perspective to plan and lead your organization to success.
Systems in general are seen as inputs, processes, and outputs.
Systems orientation encourages you to first look at what your organization is supposed to produce. You first determine what is supposed to be your organization’s output before you start planning.
You should state that output in as few, simple words as possible. From there you build up to determining the processes needed to produce that output, and the resources, –inputs– needed for those processes.
It’s quite a simple, linear way to look at and plan your organization’s work when you think about it.
Of course, to again quote Professor Boje, there is this thing called systemicity, which criticizes overly simplistic ways in seeing “static linear-hierarchic conceptions of [a] whole ‘system’” (2008, p. 29). David is correct in that systems exist as systemicity, which is “the dynamic unfinished, unfinalized, and unmerged, and the interactivity of complexity properties” (2008, p. 29).
So, while it is possible, and wise, to start with your organization’s output, and state it in as few words possible, you do that so you can build upward in your planning. The O part, and broad general P’s and I’s are simple. But as you create your plans and look at the ever widening picture, you will see that things get complex in a hurry.
How well you know your onions determines how well you can pull off the complex nature of organization planning.
We’ll get into that later.
Next Steps
If you stumbled into this site by a lucky google search hit, you can do what you want.
If you were sent to this page because you followed a link I posted in the LMS, then you will go in two directions for the remainder of class.
If you are in my health systems class. You will find the semester leaning more toward the systems theory route of the course. And don't worry, unless you are in a doctoral seminar, you don't need to do a deep dive into systemicity. You will discover how the course ties more to systems theory as you progress through it.
If you are in my management or administration course. You will find yourself going down the systems thinking route in this course. That makes sense, you want to learn how to be a great leader. Systems thinking will help you wrap your head around the work you need to do to help your organization succeed.
Reference:
Boje, D. M. (2008). Storytelling Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.