Understanding ‘complex’ ‘systems’
Understanding and influencing systems has become a part of everyday speak as words like ‘ecosystems’ and ‘systemic’ flourish in business and media literature. But what is a system? And what is a ‘complex’ ‘system’ as these two terms tend to interconnect?
As a field of expertise Systems Design explores how systems work, how to think about them, how one can influence them, but not control them.
The saying ‘every time you solve a problem you create a problem’ (Kevin Slavin) is because of systems. Our problems tend to connect, interact and react to each other.
Systems cannot be broken apart, it is the relationships and forces between the nodes in the system that make it work the way it does.
Understanding ‘complexity’ and ‘systems’ is completely different to our normal way of thinking. Trying to exert control, doing analysis by breaking something apart and understanding the whole as the sum of its parts doesn’t exist in systems design. And this runs counter to especially our western way of analysing and understanding the world.
In this article Deirdre Cerminaro gives an introduction to an incredibly important field of expertise, but one that also needs a lot of respect. As ‘system’ becomes a part of the everyday lingo it is important that we communicate what a system demands from us, and how we are able to design or influence it.
A longer article on complexity and systems, an excellent read on how we can only ‘dance’ with a system.
Also, if you are interested, these are three short online courses I’ve taken that all introduce systems design slightly differently. I recommend doing all of them.
